What Is Interprofessional Education at Rosalind Franklin University?

Interprofessional education (IPE) at Rosalind Franklin University (RFU) means students from different health professions colleges learn with — and from — each other, so they graduate prepared to work in team-based care. RFU describes the goal as bringing health specialists together to serve patients more effectively through collaboration, and it frames this as part of developing a holistic view of patient care. If you're evaluating RFU or trying to understand how its programs differ from single-profession training, this is the concept to understand first.

The core idea

At RFU, interprofessionalism is not a single course or a side activity. The university presents it as a driving principle behind how health care should be delivered: specialists from different fields combining their expertise around one shared objective — serving the patient well.

The practical implication for students is that your classmates in a given learning experience may be training for entirely different roles than you are. A nursing student, a medical student, and a physical therapy student might work the same case together rather than learning in isolation.

How RFU structures it

RFU organizes health education across six unique colleges:

• Chicago Medical School
• College of Health Professions
• College of Nursing
• College of Pharmacy
• Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine
• School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies

Because these colleges sit within one university, RFU can bring their students together in shared learning. The university also maintains an Institute for Interprofessional Education and Research, which supports this work, and a student-led Interprofessional Community Clinic (ICC) that RFU describes as one of many programs designed to promote collaboration among learners, educators, clinical partners, and community leaders.

What it looks like in practice

RFU points to real settings where interprofessional teams operate:

• The Interprofessional Community Clinic (ICC) — a student-led clinic where learners from different programs collaborate.
• Community care in the fields of Georgia — RFU describes small teams that have included medical, nursing, and physical therapy students, along with fellows and alumni from Emory Healthcare, clinicians, interpreters, and partners from regional universities.
• The Innovation Sandbox — a new learning environment RFU says is intended to strengthen partnerships, spark creativity, and improve health across the region.

These examples show the model in action: mixed teams, shared responsibility, and a focus on the patient rather than on a single discipline's perspective.

Why it matters to you

If you're considering RFU, the interprofessional model affects your day-to-day experience in a few concrete ways:

• You learn alongside other professions. Your education includes structured interaction with students from other colleges, not just your own cohort.
• You practice team-based care before you're licensed. The ICC and similar programs give students a chance to work in collaborative teams while still in training.
• You build a holistic view of patients. RFU explicitly ties interprofessional education to seeing the patient as a whole person rather than as a single clinical problem.

How to explore it further

If you want to go deeper, RFU's own materials point to two starting places: the Institute for Interprofessional Education and Research and the Interprofessional Community Clinic. You can also look at the individual colleges to see how each program fits into the broader interprofessional structure, and check the university's news section for current examples of teams and projects in action.