A message from our Founder

"I had grown to love interprofessional practice as an undergraduate in pharmacy (UQ) and saw wonderful changes to patient care first-hand in the years following. I've always been motivated to educate others about my role as a pharmacist within a multidisciplinary team (MDT), however when I commenced clinical medicine within the hospital system, I noticed a very clear lack of understanding and appreciation for all members of the MDT. I started to then wonder, where do we actually learn about each profession and where do we learn about how we best utilise each other in patient care? Should it be something that we stumble across once we graduate?
Why don’t we start working with and learning from each other now?

 

From my work with the Australasian Interprofessional Practice and Education Network and own research, it is very clear that cohesive, interprofessional practice with mutual understanding and respect for other health professionals enhances the patient experience and improves patient outcomes. It was clear to me we had a great opportunity within the tertiary education space to start this early collaboration.

 

With that in mind, in 2012-2013 we birthed Australia’s first student-led interprofessional education and practice student council, which later become
the Interprofessional Education and Practice Health Students’ Network."

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Dr Joseph Monteith

BPharm (Hons) DCH MPH MD

Aviation Medical Officer (Royal)

Australian Air Force

MD Class of 2014