Inter-Professional Education (IPE) in the healthcare context focuses on health professionals and students learning with, from and about one another to improve collaboration and the quality of patient care (Thistlethwaite, 2012). It is of great importance that all the three conditions are met in order to have inter-professional learning and education rather than having students just standing together in the same classroom or other settings. IPE generates a collaborative learning environment in which educators and learners, coming from different professional backgrounds, interact and in which they develop knowledge, skills and attitudes that will be of main importance during team practice (Buring, et al., 2009). The collaborative practice allows finding shared and more creative solutions to the problems faced, it is a constructive process supported by the insights of an entire team (Gray, 1989).
The Inter-Professional Learning (IPL) is a result of the interaction between students of two or more professions and it can be supported through planned IPE or it can happen by chance (Freeth, Hammick, Reeves, Koppel, & Barr, 2005). The first option is more desirable and beneficial since it can be designed and measured in terms of process and outcomes. The purpose of developing IPL programs is
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Team working will be a massive part of their job requirements and they will be more efficient if they have been taught how to conduct it in the more adequate way. That is why delivering learning activities to promote future collaboration is essential. Nevertheless, one of the major challenges in the development and the adoption of IPE in educational contexts is the conciliation between the attempt of maintaining traditional professional boundaries and the pursuit of more integrated role delineations (Thistlethwaite,