Interprofessional Education in Child Welfare: A University-community Collaboration between Nursing, Education, and Social Work.

Interprofessional learning is one strategy used to combat the 'silos' that too often characterize patient/client care within the health and helping professions. Yet, despite longstanding recognition of the multidisciplinary nature of child welfare and the need for coordination and collaboration between professionals there is little evidence of a child welfare focus in current interprofessional education initiatives. Drawing on the concept of 'interprofessionality,' this paper presents a university-community collaboration between nursing, social work and education to prepare students for interprofessional practice in child welfare. It highlights the lessons learned from this initiative and links these lessons to a broader education and research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]