Pharmacy Daily | IPE Colloquium focus on trust

TRUST was the key theme at the 2025 Interprofessional Education (IPE) Colloquium hosted by the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) on 13 May.

The Colloquium brought together over 180 educators, students, policymakers and health professionals from across the country to explore the role of collaboration in building and rebuilding trust in healthcare.

Discussions highlighted that rebuilding trust in healthcare starts with how practitioners are educated, with fostering collaboration across disciplines, centring patients and communities, and preparing them to lead with integrity, inclusivity, and shared responsibility in a changing world.

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," Clark explained.

"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," Clark stated.

Professor Julie Leask of University of Sydney, who has a special interest in vaccine hesitancy, 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.

Prominent pharmacist, health practitioner leader and educator, Professor Lisa Nissen, ran a session titled 'Trust in me, trust in you - the key to optimising scope of practice', which 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.

Planetary health came up for discussion, with Associate Professor Hayley Blackburn of University of Montana, USA, delivering a powerful reminder of the responsibility of health professionals in the face of climate and health challenges.

Finally, 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.