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The 2025 Interprofessional Education (IPE) Colloquium™ highlighted that rebuilding trust in healthcare starts with how we educate — by fostering collaboration across disciplines, centring patients and communities, and preparing health professionals to lead with integrity, inclusivity, and shared responsibility in a changing world.
The IPE Colloquium™ hosted by the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC), has brought together educators, students, policymakers and health professionals from across the country today to explore the role of collaboration in building and rebuilding trust.
The event saw over 180 delegates engage in meaningful conversations about the role of education in building trusted health professionals, under the masterful guidance of Professor Tina Brock, Director of the Collaborative Practice Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne and facilitator for the day.
APC Chief Executive Officer, Bronwyn Clark, expressed in her opening remarks that the future depends on how we learn together.
'With the challenges we're seeing today, interprofessional education is more critical than ever. Rebuilding trust — with patients, and with each other — depends on how we learn together. We need graduates who understand not just the science, but the systems, not just their own role, but the value and insight others bring for patient-centred care,' Ms Clark stated.
Trust and the pandemic
Keynote speaker Professor Julie Leask AO, University of Sydney, emphasised how trust is shaped by people’s beliefs and experiences - and the importance of communicating using trust-promoting strategies, creating safe spaces, and community engagement.
'It's all in the details. Asking, listening, acknowledging, and validating the person, even if you disagree with what they say. Then share with them the appropriate information that meets their needs. If that rapport has been built, then your recommendation lands in a much more accepting environment,' said Prof. Leask.
Scope of practice - trusting each other
Keynote speaker, Professor Lisa Nissen's session 'Trust in me, trust in you – the key to optimising scope of practice' emphasised the need to recognise where health professions share overlapping skills.
'Because we don't have a good understanding of what other members of healthcare teams do and how they contribute to patient care, it is undermining the trust that teams can have to work together,' stated Prof. Nissen.
Collaboration for planetary health
Keynote speaker Associate Professor Hayley Blackburn, University of Montana, USA, delivered a powerful reminder of the responsibility of health professionals in the face of climate and health challenges.
‘Health professionals are one of the most trusted voices globally. They have dimensions of credibility, expertise, trustworthiness, and acting in public interest. They are a strategic asset across many settings... And they have an ethical responsibility... Future health professionals will need to see themselves as stewards of environmental sustainability,' expressed A/Prof Blackburn.
Diverse perspectives
A panel discussion explored how trust and collaboration in healthcare are built not just through formal roles, but through everyday interactions — listening deeply, involving patients and carers in decision-making, and fostering inclusive, growth-oriented learning environments.
Outcome statement
As an accreditation authority, an official outcome statement was developed as a public commitment to place trust at the heart of healthcare education and collaboration. Delegates reflected on this statement and made commitments to embedding interprofessional learning, amplifying student voices, educating future professionals to be trustworthy sources of knowledge, and fostering respectful collaboration that build trust across professions for the betterment of the communities they serve. See full outcome statement.
Save the date
The 2026 IPE Colloquium™ event will be held on 5 May 2026, in Canberra at Hotel Realm, under the theme of Empowering voices: Educating health professionals for respectful and inclusive conversations.