Chair of CAIPE
Elizabeth Howkins, Chair of the CAIPE Board
Elizabeth was elected by the CAIPE board to become chair in June 2009. She has been a member of CAIPE for many years and six of those as a board member. She is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Reading and an educational consultant. She was senior lecturer at the University of Reading and Head of the Department of Health and Social Care for six years. Elizabeth’s experience is in the field of primary health care, with a specific focus on health and social care in the community. She developed her research work in the area of interprofessional education (IPE), which included collaborative work and understanding the ways that professionals teach and learn in practice. She played a key role in a Berkshire multiprofessional primary care education scheme known as TIPS (Protected Time to learn) where all local primary care teams come together to learn with, from and about each other, with an aim to improve patient care. She was member of the project team for HEFC (Higher Education Funding Council) funded research project PIPE (Promoting Interprofessional Education). She lead one of the schemes which explored the development and skills needed for the preparation of facilitators for IPE. She edited the book on the research project of PIPE. The book provides a critical exploration of practice and contributes to the emerging evidence base of teacher/facilitation preparation for interprofessional learning.
Elizabeth has run recent workshops on the preparation of practitioners for their roles as facilitators for interprofessional learning. The workshop has two stages; first to help each individual to assess their own skills of facilitation and second to provide opportunities for the practitioners to practise skills of facilitation in a safe environment.
Howkins E. and Bray J., 2008, Preparing for Interprofessional Teaching: theory and practice, Radcliffe Publishing Oxford and New York