Interprofessional integrative healthcare education: What do primary care educational programs need?

Background: The University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, in collaboration with the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine received a HRSA grant to establish the National Center for Integrative Primary Healthcare (NCIPH). The NCIPH supports the incorporation of competency- and evidence-based Integrative Medicine/Integrative Health Care (IM/IH) curricula into educational programs in a movement toward integrative interprofessional patient care. One goal is to design a 20-40 hour IM/IH online course with content appropriate for use across the entire interprofessional spectrum of primary care practitioners. Methods: A needs assessment was sent to primary care educational programs to assess interest and identify curriculum priorities, common content areas, core IM/IH competencies, and implementation barriers to design a 20-40 hour IM/IH online course. Results: 228 programs from primary care residencies (40%), licensed complementary and integrative health programs (13%), pharmacy (9%), nursing (8%), public health (7%), and other professions participated. Most (88%-94%) felt it was important to offer IM/IH content in educational programs, residencies, or as continuing education. 54% offered IM/IH content, but only 25% felt it was sufficient. Half were interested in being able to offer an interprofessional IM/IH course and 58% wished to pilot the course. The highest rated implementation barriers were time constraints (90%), budget (69%), and faculty IM/IH expertise (61%). Top rated content areas to cover included nutrition/diet, patient-provider communication, behavior change, patient-centered care, and lifestyle counseling. Core IM/IH competencies rated as most important to cover were patient-centered and relationship-centered care (96%), working effectively on an interprofessional team (93%), and facilitating behavior change in individuals, families, and communities (93%). Conclusions: The ultimate goal of this project is to change primary care health professional’s education to include an emphasis on providing an integrative approach to patient care utilizing an interprofessional collaborative team.  The survey results demonstrated substantial interest and need for an interprofessional IM/IH course. Despite the breadth of respondents common content areas and core IM/IH competencies on which to base the course were identified. Next steps include curriculum development, piloting and broad dissemination.