Liao, Theresa H.
Rindfleisch, J. Adam
Howard, Kelly Peyton
Castellani, Marc
Noyes, Sara Grimsgaard
Article History
Received: 30 November 2023
Accepted: 22 August 2024
First Online: 10 September 2024
Declarations
:
: Not applicable.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare no competing interests.
: Whole Health is an approach to health care that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and well-being and to live their lives to the fullest. In 2011, the US Veterans Health Administration (VHA) created the Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation to implement a Whole Health approach and change how health care is delivered to Veterans across the enterprise. This health care transformation has included shifting to more of a focus on whole person care for health and well-being that aligns with what matters most to each patient, as well as the formal incorporation of health care professionals who are novel to mainstream health care systems. Such cultural change has necessitated interprofessional education for practicing clinicians who previously trained in a different health care paradigm. This commentary describes the interprofessional education initiatives and lessons learned from the first decade of health care transformation towards a Whole Health approach across VHA, and demonstrates the critical role of ongoing interprofessional education for health systems to effectively promote collaborative practice for whole person health and well-being. This approach to care can potentially benefit additional populations and other health care systems as well, and VHA’s experience offers insights for health professions educators regarding novel ways that interprofessional teams can be developed to transform health care.