Development of an Online Interprofessional Health Professions Education Masters Programme to Influence the Delivery of High Quality Education.

Increasing pressures on health and care systems require flexible, accessible, creative and relevant learning opportunities, particularly for educators who also work within a health, academic or social care setting. The ecosystem crisis reinforces the importance of promoting interprofessional education to influence effective interprofessional working.
An online, synchronous, part time Health Professions Education programme was designed to offer flexibility in undertaking a PG Cert, PG Dip or MSc award. The programme aims to instil principles and values of interprofessional education through innovative, interactive workshop facilitating students to learn with, from and about other educators.
The first iteration of the PG Cert commenced in September 2023. Five students completed the PG Cert, with 3 achieving Fellowship of Advance HE, 4 achieving Academy of Medical Educators Fellowship. Our second cohort (2024/25) has 13 PG Cert/PG Dip students from a range of professions. Programme evaluation has highlighted: value of the interprofessional delivery, interactive synchronous workshops, and relevance of content to their practice as positive areas of feedback. Learners identified the challenges of being released from employment, and financial support to undertake the modules. Feedback from prospective applicants has indicated that time since recent study can be a barrier to meet entry requirements.
As awareness of our programme has increased, there has been an encouraging increase in matriculated students, highlighting the value placed on high quality health professions education. We are attempting to address the challenges of time, funding and recent study barrier through provision of stand alone modules, NHS discount, and study scholarships.