IPEC Domain/Competency 

Roles and Responsibilities

Sub-Competency

RR1 Include the full scope of knowledge, skills, and attitudes of team members

RR2 Collaborate with others within and outside of the health and service delivery systems to achieve outcomes

RR3 Incorporate complementary expertise of all team members

Goals and objectives

• Explain the role and responsibilities of another profession.
• Compare the roles of their own profession and another discipline.
• Describe how different professions contribute to shared goals and outcomes.
• Identify strategies for effective collaboration with professionals from other disciplines.
• Value the complementary expertise of team members in interdisciplinary practice.

Materials

• Students/professionals representing a variety of disciplines

Activity description

First, students will interview other students/professionals in a discipline that is different from their own, using the following questions as a guideline.

Understanding the Profession:

• What is the primary role of your profession?
• What populations do you typically serve?
• What specialized knowledge or skills does your profession bring?

Understanding Team Contributions:

• What unique expertise do you contribute to an interdisciplinary team?
• How does your role complement the work of other professionals?
• What is one common misconception about your profession?

Collaboration and Communication:

• Which professions do you collaborate with most often, and why?
• When should another professional consult or refer to someone in your field?
• What helps professionals work together effectively? 

Next, following the interview, students will introduce the other profession to the class.

Debrief Questions

1. What is one new thing you learned about another profession?
2. How does this profession's expertise complement your own or the profession you are preparing to enter?
3. What opportunities for collaboration exist between your professions?
4. How can a better understanding of professional roles improve outcomes for individuals, families, or communities?
5. What is one takeaway you will apply to future interdisciplinary teamwork?

Closing prompt

Ask students to complete the following sentence: “Because of today's activity, I better understand the role of (example), and I can see how collaborating with this profession could improve outcomes by (example).”

Use

To describe different team members and demonstrate how they may work together in and interdisciplinary setting.

Variation for IDE learning experiences

Assign each student one discipline from the interdisciplinary team they will be working in. That student is to read about their assigned discipline, answer the questions, and present the information to the class.

Source

Tennessee Interprofessional Practice and Education Consortium. (n.d.). IPE Learning Activities for Classroom Implementation. Retrieved July 2026 from Link.

Suggested Citation: CHBS IPE and IDE Council. (2026). Introducing Another Profession. CHBS IPE & IDE Instructional Toolkit. James Madison University.