Dipping Your Toes in the Water: An Experiential Strategy to Recruit and Engage New Faculty in Interprofessional Education.

Aims: Engaged and trained faculty to support and role-model interprofessional education (IPE)-related concepts and behaviors are vital in the development, implementation, and sustainability of IPE academic teaching and training programs. Thus, recruitment of engaged faculty is essential for effective IPE expansion, scalability innovation, and sustainability across a variety of schools, programs, and students. The primary aim of this descriptive study was to implement a strategy to recruit and engage new IPE faculty and determine the strategy's effectiveness in increasing faculty's intent to participate in future IPE. A secondary aim was to identify implementation recommendations for this strategy as a first step of IPE faculty engagement.

Methods: An introductory experiential recruitment and engagement strategy for new Faculty Observers was developed. The project used a descriptive study design and data were gathered through pre- and post-program online self-administered surveys completed by Faculty Observer participants. The surveys included questions about demographics, rating usefulness of activities, engagement motivators, and willingness to facilitate in the future.

Results: Fifteen faculty with no or limited IPE experience participated. Post-survey results indicated that 85% of the participants expressed willingness to participate in this program in the future, and 100% would recommend using this experiential recruitment and engagement strategy.

Discussion: A "dip your toes in the water" experiential strategy for IPE faculty recruitment and engagement was effective in recruitment of new IPE faculty.