Step by step: Utilizing Kotter's model to design and implement a strategic plan for institutionalizing interprofessional education and practice

Health professional schools are complex environments. Academic leaders of interprofessional education and practice (IPEP) have the unique challenge of navigating these intricacies on the individual and collective level to create a common vision that supports the sustainable implementation and assessment of quality interprofessional education (IPE). In order to move beyond a common approach to IPE that has been described as a “series of isolated events” that insufficiently address the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies in their entirety, a strategic planning process can help institutions design and develop robust IPE experiences with intentionality.

This article describes the steps taken in a formal strategic planning process to create and sustain a pan-university IPEP office to strengthen IPE and collaboration among emerging health professionals/schools-departments at a public flagship university in the southeastern U.S. Additionally, Kotter's model for institutional change highlights strategies to gain buy-in, and lessons learned. This paper provides a guide to help grow, sustain, and invest in formal IPEP programs for other academic institutions.