Seeing health and social care work through the lens of ‘connective professionalism’: Implications for interprofessional education

BACKGROUND: The field of interprofessional education provides educational preparedness for collaborative work. In this cross-cutting edge paper, we argue that aligning educational offerings to diverse current and future configurations of collaborative work is both a goal and a challenge for educators. To continue to move towards this goal, we draw from recent debates in the fields of organizational studies and sociology of professions. In response to the historical focus on protective professionalism, theorists in the intersections of those two fields have begun to debate the concept of 'connective professionalism'. Analytical contribution: Connective professionalism offers a lens to view the diversity of collaborative work that occurs across the health and social care system. It challenges a static notion of professionalism, roles and boundaries and instead treats professional work as a continually negotiated accomplishment. This lively theoretical debate is happening outside of health professions education journals but is particularly relevant for the domain of interprofessional education. We argue that interprofessional education (IPE), when underpinned by an understanding of connective professionalism, could contribute to the educational production of graduates who encompass core interprofessional competencies and who can relate to and navigate social, historical, cultural and economic contexts that structure the practice settings in ongoing ways. By employing the concept of connective professionalism, we broaden the lens on what it means to work together and offer a conceptual structure for IPE educators who prepare learners for a diversity of collaborative work constellations.