Documenting Interprofessional Skill Development with Microcredentials

An interprofessional curriculum built on a framework of microcredentials reflects the four characteristics that define quality interprofessional education: rationale, outcome-based goals, deliberate design, and assessment and evaluation. Its structure reflects the four IPEC core competencies that will be achieved at its completion. The goals within each competency are clearly defined, attainable, and measurable. This microcredential system is designed to extend over the entirety of a student’s program and to integrate expected outcomes into existing curricula and co-curricular activities. It is valuable for students of one profession to learn about, with, and from another; therefore, interprofessional learning groups will be implemented. Each of the four microcredentials has assessment methods that are specific to each core competency.

The design and implementation of this interprofessional microcredential system can influence the way in which interprofessional collaboration is incorporated into curricula across professions. Microcredential systems have proven to be effective in many settings, especially where educational content already exists and where expectations for assessment of competencies are manageable. Valuing interprofessional learning as microcredentials is different from traditional courses because microcredentials contain detailed claims about learning and direct supporting evidence for each claim outside of the traditional course structure. Microcredentials also provide flexibility in implementation while positioning programs to meet profession-specific accreditation expectations for interprofessional education.