The 4 Core Competencies of Interprofessional Collaboration Explained
The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) defines four core competency domains for team-based healthcare: Values and Ethics, Roles and Responsibilities, Communication, and Teams and Teamwork. First published in 2011 and most recently updated in November 2023 (Version 3), the framework breaks these four domains into 33 specific subcompetencies. It's the most widely cited standard for what interprofessional collaboration actually requires, whether you're training students or trying to fix a team that isn't working. Here's what each domain actually means, and what it looks like on the floor.
- The IPEC framework defines four competency domains: Values and Ethics, Roles and Responsibilities, Communication, and Teams and Teamwork.
- The 2023 update (Version 3) breaks these into 33 subcompetencies: 11 under Values and Ethics, 5 under Roles and Responsibilities, 7 under Communication, and 10 under Teams and Teamwork.
- Values and Ethics centers on shared respect, equity, and psychological safety within the team. Roles and Responsibilities is about knowing your own scope and understanding what colleagues contribute.
- Communication covers clear, jargon-free exchange between team members, while Teams and Teamwork covers shared leadership, conflict management, and collective accountability for outcomes.
- The framework was built for interprofessional education but explicitly extends to real-world, team-based clinical care, not just training environments.
Where the Framework Comes From
IPEC first published its core competencies in 2011, drawing on a coalition of national health professions education associations. The framework has been updated twice since: a 2016 revision that aligned it with broader health system changes like the Affordable Care Act, and the current 2023 Version 3, which refines the competency language and adds an expanded glossary and implementation tools.
The 4 Core Competency Domains
This domain is about the shared foundation a team operates from, not clinical skill, but how team members treat each other and the people they care for. It covers upholding patient dignity and confidentiality, valuing diversity and different forms of expertise, and practicing honesty, empathy, and respect across the team.
It also explicitly addresses team culture: fostering a workplace where differences are respected, well-being is prioritized, and every profession's expertise is genuinely valued rather than ranked.
This domain is about knowing your own scope of practice and understanding what your colleagues bring to the table, including their expertise, limits, and how their role complements yours. It covers using the full range of a team's collective knowledge and skill to deliver person-centered, safe, and equitable care, and collaborating with people outside the immediate health system when needed.
It also includes practicing cultural humility specifically within interprofessional teamwork, recognizing that role clarity isn't just administrative, it directly affects whether care gets delivered safely.
This domain covers clear, respectful, jargon-free exchange of information between team members. It includes communicating your own role clearly, using communication tools and technology to support team function, and practicing active listening that genuinely makes room for other people's input.
It also covers giving and receiving constructive feedback, and reflecting on how your own position, power, and experience shape how you communicate and manage conflict, a subtle but important addition in the 2023 update.
This is the largest domain, and the most action-oriented. It covers evidence-informed team development, shared leadership, and structured conflict management, including identifying what's actually causing a disagreement rather than just smoothing it over.
It also covers team reflection and shared accountability for outcomes, plus a practical, often-overlooked piece: discussing the organizational structures, policies, and resource constraints that affect whether a team can actually function well in the first place.
Why Teams and Teamwork has the most subcompetencies: it's the domain that turns the other three into action. Values without teamwork stay abstract; role clarity without teamwork doesn't get coordinated; communication without teamwork doesn't reach a decision. That's likely why IPEC gave it the most granular breakdown.
What This Looks Like on the Floor
IPEC's competencies originated in health professions education, but the 2023 update is explicit that they apply across professions and care settings, not just training programs. Translated into observable, everyday behaviors on a real unit, they tend to look like:
This is also where the competencies connect to a harder question: why collaboration built on good values still breaks down in practice. We cover that directly in why interprofessional collaboration fails in practice, the companion piece to this one. For more real-world scenarios showing these competencies in action, see our 10 interprofessional collaboration examples.
Turn "Communication" From a Value Into a Habit
HosTalky gives every team member, regardless of title, a direct and documented way to communicate, supporting the Communication and Teams and Teamwork competencies in daily practice, not just in theory.
See How HosTalky WorksWhy This Framework Still Matters in Practice
It's easy to treat a competency framework like this as academic, something for orientation packets and simulation labs rather than a busy floor. But the four domains map directly onto the recurring, evidence-documented reasons teams struggle: unclear roles, communication gaps, hierarchy that suppresses input, and no shared process for resolving conflict. The framework isn't prescribing ideals so much as naming, specifically, what's usually missing when interprofessional collaboration doesn't work. That's what makes it useful as a diagnostic, not just a training checklist.
For a deeper look at how communication specifically breaks down on real teams, see our guide to communication barriers in the healthcare workplace, and for the structured tool most directly tied to the Communication domain, see SBAR implementation and examples.
FAQs
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Sources and References
- Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2023). IPEC Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: Version 3. ipecollaborative.org
- Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2023). Core Competency and Sub-Competency Statements, Version 3. ipec.memberclicks.net
- Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2016). Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: 2016 Update. ipec.memberclicks.net
