This guide intends to disseminate the strategies utilized to train teachers as interprofessional health education (IPE) facilitators in a purpose-built IPE course from 2015–2019 at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile.

The available evidence on this topic shows several challenges, especially concerning the training of a team, mainly due to the central role that facilitators play in implementing and modeling IPE. The most relevant challenge for IPE teachers’ training lies in the great diversity of professionals involved in the courses—with different disciplines, professions, experiences, levels of teamwork skills—in addition to the lack of experience and knowledge of IPE and the absence of national policies to promote IPE. We have found similar difficulties to those reported in the international literature concerning the institutional and personal barriers that prevent facilitators from engaging as leaders [1].

In 2009, a team of facilitators responsible for designing and implementing IPE courses was formed, including professionals from the Science, Health, and Education Departments and Units. They met weekly to reflect upon, discuss, elaborate, and implement the proposal. Their work consisted of defining the competencies, achievement indicators and levels, the course development methodology, assessment instruments, preparation of the necessary documents for the course, qualifications required for academics to participate in the course, resources required for the course, and logistical aspects of its implementation. The pilot course included students from 2 undergraduate programs in 2010. In 2015, the course was implemented for the first time for the Faculty’s 8 undergraduate programs (Supplements 1, 2), with participation by 700 students and 35 teachers in charge (Fig. 1). A teaching community, an interprofessional coordinating team, a teaching secretariat supported by the facilitator development unit, and a psychologist from the human resources unit also participated in the project. The second IPE experience occurred in 2016 and included the 8 undergraduate programs. Five hundred students, 30 teachers in charge, 50 student sections, and a multi-professional coordinating team participated in this phase [2]. Information about the IPE program can be accessed through the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile (http://www.medicina.uchile.cl/; http://formacioncomun.med.uchile.cl).

The lessons learned below were derived from the teachers’ evaluations of the IPE process.

The lessons learned for training teachers as facilitators in an IPE course included, firstly, the need to obtain support from the university authorities, who were an essential element to initiate the process of change and implementation of the primary resources. In addition, the awareness of the IPE teaching community and collaborative practice among academics contributed to the advancement of this experience, transforming it into a paradigm shift that sought to move towards shared decision-making. The appraisal of each of the health team members was regarded as central to the process, and thus essential for valuing IPE as a strategy for better health care, as demonstrated in research conducted elsewhere. This experience’s success was due to several factors, particularly the introduction of an interprofessional teaching coordination team composed of professionals from all health and basic sciences programs. Collaborative leadership, shared decisions, and valuing different professional views served as good models of IPE for students. Finally, for the course’s implementation and development to succeed, it was vital to carry out ongoing monitoring and feedback of the IPE experience.