Preparing Whole Teams for Whole-Person Care

Interprofessional collaborative practice sits at the heart of whole-person palliative care. When I entered practice as a new graduate registered nurse in community-based palliative care, I had the privilege of “growing up” professionally on highly collaborative teams. My nursing identity was shaped from the start by an understanding of my interconnected role—I was one essential part of a much larger whole. That team-based lens became foundational to how I see care.

Even now, more than fifteen years later, I realize how unique that experience was. Most new graduate nurses begin their careers in hospital settings. There, for many good reasons—including the responsibility of around-the-clock bedside care—nursing often sits at the forefront of patient care, with other disciplines in more supporting roles. As a result, professional identities can form differently. 

This contrast came into sharp focus when I moved into education. What had become second nature to me in clinical practice—thinking and working interprofessionally—wasn’t necessarily intuitive to all my faculty colleagues, and certainly not to students. In hindsight, that made sense. I wasn’t explicitly taught how to be an effective team member in nursing school either. 

Early in my faculty journey, though, I was fortunate to connect with colleagues who shared both the intuition and the passion to better prepare students for interprofessional collaborative practice. We wanted graduates to enter their professions not just clinically competent, but collaboration ready. And the evidence supports that goal. 

A growing body of research demonstrates the impact of interprofessional education (IPE) on student outcomes—such as increased empathy and professional identity formation—as well as on early-career collaborative practice, workplace culture, and ultimately patient outcomes. 1–5 Professional and educator consensus around its importance has led multiple accrediting bodies to embed IPE into program standards, including CCNE, CSWE, CAA, LCME, and ACPE. In other words, this isn’t just a “nice to have.” It’s a professional imperative. 

So, what is IPE, exactly? At its core, IPE brings students from different professions or disciplines together to learn about, with, and from one another in classroom, simulated, and clinical settings. 6–8 It’s not enough to include a slide or two about “when to call [insert discipline]” and consider the job done. Like any other competency, collaboration must be taught, modeled, and practiced. Students need structured opportunities to engage as team members, reflect on their roles, and learn how to communicate across professional boundaries. 

Of course, that’s easier said than done! Organizational, structural, cultural, financial, and curricular barriers can all make IPE challenging to implement in higher education. Aligning schedules alone can feel like solving a complex puzzle.

Still, those hurdles haven’t diminished our commitment to students across professional/disciplinary training programs at CSUSM and beyond. With support from the Dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Services (CEHHS), our IPE workgroup partnered with the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care at CSUSM to launch interprofessional learning events. These events bring together students and faculty from kinesiology, nursing, social work, and speech-language pathology for a full day of collaborative learning. We hosted our first event in Spring 2023 with 85 students. Since then, participation has grown to as many as 200 students each fall and spring semester. 

Building on that momentum, and with generous funding from the Hearst Foundation in Spring 2025, we’ve expanded the vision of IPE beyond a single campus. In partnership with the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care, we’ve broadened support and programming at both CSUSM and Fresno State. This includes faculty training summits, the development of campus IPE teams, and the introduction of a scalable model for expanding IPE learning opportunities. In Spring 2026, Fresno State will host its first IPE learning event, while CSUSM will add an additional event that includes students from even more programs. 

Looking ahead, we envision a CSU system where students across disciplines learn about, with, and from one another throughout their programs and across educational environments. Through ongoing program evaluation and research, we also hope to contribute meaningfully to the broader conversation about effective IPE models—ones that translate into truly robust interprofessional collaborative practice. 

Because at the end of the day, whole-person care requires whole-team preparation! 

1. Cadet T, Cusimano J, McKearney S, et al. Describing the evidence linking interprofessional education interventions to improving the delivery of safe and effective patient care: a scoping review. Journal of Interprofessional Care. 2024;38(3):476-485. doi:10.1080/13561820.2023.2283119 

2. Shrader S, Hodgkins R, Bhattacharya S, Laverentz D, Johnston K, Jernigan S. Evaluating the impact of an interprofessional education program on workforce: Recruitment, collaborative practice, and culture.Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice.2022;28:100495. doi:10.1016/j.xjep.2022.100495 
3. Chua TXJ, Lopez V, Chua QWC, Lau ST. Impact of interprofessional education on empathy of pre-licensure healthcare students: A mixed-studies systematic review.Nurse Education Today.2024;143:106380. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2024.106380 
4. Saragih ID, Hsiao CT, Fann WC, Hsu CM,SaragihIS, Lee BO. Impacts of interprofessional education on collaborative practice of healthcare professionals: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nurse Education Today. 2024;136:106136. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2024.106136 
5. Ciani GJ, Grimaldi G, Macalintal M, et al. The Impact of Interprofessional Education on Health Profession Students’ Professional Identity.Education Sciences. 2023;13(5). doi:10.3390/educsci13050494
6. Kong L, Briggs E,XyrichisA. What is the effect of different interprofessional education teaching strategies on healthcare professions students’ interprofessional learning outcomes? A systematic narrative review. Nurse Education in Practice. 2025;83:104255. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2025.104255 
7. Aldriwesh MG,AlyousifSM, Alharbi NS. Undergraduate-level teaching and learning approaches for interprofessional education in the health professions: a systematic review. BMC Med Educ. 2022;22(1):13. doi:10.1186/s12909-021-03073-0 
8. Maddock B, Dārziņš P, Kent F. Realist review of interprofessional education for health care students: What works for whom and why.Journal of Interprofessional Care. 2023;37(2):173-186. doi:10.1080/13561820.2022.2039105

By Katie Robinson, PhD, RN-BC, CHPN, Assistant Professor | CEHHS School of Nursing | California State University, San Marcos, CA