A group of nine senior health academics from Norway have been on a fact-finding mission to the University of East Anglia to draw lessons in best practice in Interprofessional Education (IPE) developed by the CIPP Team in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Hosted by Dr Susanne Lindqvist, Director for the Centre of Interprofessional Practice (CIPP), and her team, the group spent a day involved in presentations and seeing first-hand how students from a variety of health professions across the Faculty were drawn together in shared learning.  The Norwegian team, from Oslo Unversity College, Diakonhjemmet University College and Bergen University College, all belong to a national project in Norway on "Collaboration Across Professional Boundaries" focussed on improving best practice through IPE.

Leading the group, Gerd Bjørke, said, "Over the years, a greater intensity of particular professional specialisation has unwittingly meant that understanding and collaboration across professions has suffered somewhat. We are looking for best practice to see how we can tackle this issue in Norway. The CIPP team at UEA is an acknowledged flag-bearer for interprofessional practice and our short trip here has been extremely useful in giving us ideas about how we apply this at home." She continued, "We will definitely be copying parts of the CIPP programme and will be keeping in touch with Susanne and the team as we develop our programmes further."

Dr Susanne Lindqvist said, "We have been working hard to provide thought-leadership in interprofessional practice. Sharing these ideas will help create a climate and the will to improve collaboration and understanding across the health sector. Interprofessional Education is a key part of the Faculty's courses and it's very rewarding to be in a position where we are sharing our findings with so many people at home and abroad."

This was the second fact-finding team to have visited the CIPP team in as many months: during the previous month they had hosted Yumiko Matsui and Akemi Abe, both nursing lecturers at the Niigata University, Japan.