ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purposes of this article were to review the current state of Inter-Professional Education (IPE) in the areas of health and medical care services in Korea, and to introduce a case study on Occupational Therapy (OT) students included in Gunma University, Japan. Methods and results: We searched KMBASE, Google Scholar, KISTI, RISS and KoreaMed using the phrase “InterProfessional Education” for dates up to December 2019, and collected articles published in domestic academic journals. Based on a systematic review and a case study of Gunma University, the related terminology and definitions, educational theories, and practices were determined. Sixteen studies consisting of eight original and seven review articles were included in the review. Among the 16 studies, 7 were from medical research, 4 from nursing, and 2 from pharmacy, and 3 were conducted in collaboration with medical-science. Since 2010, Gunma University School of Health Sciences has maintained collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) in disseminating IPE models and investigating their educational effectiveness, and was designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre in 2013. Its educational purposes and learning effect were also introduced in the review. Conclusion: This is the first study introducing IPE in the field of OT in Korea, and we therefore highly expect that the necessity of participation and collaborative practice will become recognized in OT education and practice, and that systematic research on the introduction of IPE can be actively discussed.