Can the communities of practice model explain the complex organization of an interprofessional student-led health clinic?

Interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) in healthcare has been shown to improve patient safety and healthcare staff satisfaction. However providing opportunities for pre-registration healthcare students to develop the skills required to practise in an interprofessional manner is challenging. Furthermore there is little theory-based literature exploring or describing the organization of these interprofessional student learning opportunities. This paper explores the organization of a student-led interprofessional healthcare clinic using Wenger's Communities of Practice (CoP) model as a framework. It modifies the CoP model to incorporate the routine yet shifting roles of students and patients, and builds on an earlier account of a Community of Clinical Practice (CoCP) by taking a different perspective. The CoCP model could act as a guide for the development of similar student-led interprofessional university clinics.