In her recent blog for the University of California San Marcos “Preparing Whole Teams for Whole-Person Care”, Katie Robinson, PhD, RN-BC, CHPN said she was lucky to have a nursing education experience that resulted in the formation of an identity rooted in “an understanding of [her] interconnected role.” That experience created a team-based perspective that became foundational to how she sees care and her role in it. Katie was trained to embody the reality that she was “one essential part of a much larger whole.”
I have had incredible opportunities to work and learn with providers from a variety of disciplines over the last 20 years. I think the massage therapy profession could seriously benefit from some meaningful cross-pollination, known as interprofessional education (IPE).
What is IPE?
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing definition of IPE covers the bases clearly and succinctly.
“Interprofessional education (IPE) occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.”
IPE doesn’t assume that these different practitioners will physically work together in the same clinical or care setting. The goal is to create strong referrals and a network of providers who can and do trust and understand each other. It assumes that understanding the scope of each others’ practice and the perspectives each has on various core competencies is key to effective, client-centered, whole-person practice.
Core Competencies of IPE
The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), emphasizes four foundational domains to standardize this team-based approach:
Values and Ethics: Working with mutual respect and shared values to maintain a patient-centered focus.
Roles and Responsibilities: Understanding the distinct skills of other healthcare disciplines to appropriately assess and address the healthcare needs of patients.
Interprofessional Communication: Communicating in a responsive, responsible, and collaborative manner with patients, families, and other team members.
Teams and Teamwork: Applying relationship-building values and team dynamics to deliver safe, efficient, and equitable care.
These competencies are the backbone of the experience Katie had as a nursing student and the experience she now works to create in her role as nursing faculty. We don’t really do these things in massage therapy education at present, but the competencies could all be easily adapted for massage therapy students.
I know there will be folks who want to push back on this and I understand that impulse. Many educators are honestly doing our absolute best to do something like this. I have seen massage therapy education programs that have coordinated experiences. Massage therapy students find themselves in vaguely parallel play or general proximity to learners in medical, nursing, or physical therapy school.
It pains me deeply to say it, but this is not IPE. These are field trips rooted in a hope for osmosis. And what makes me sad is that I know how much time, energy, and passion they take to create.
So let’s talk about what these experiences could be and how we could spend that time, energy, and passion shifting them into more deeply valuable experiences.
Missed It By That Much
What I have seen most commonly, is that we bring massage therapy students to give “a massage” to medical students or others learning to be healthcare professionals (nurses, physical therapists). Maybe our students talk about what they’re doing during that massage, but we don’t prepare our students to engage with the students from these other disciplines as peers.
These massage therapy students are not learning with these medical or nursing students. They are offering a “nice experience” and then returning to their very separate, very different schools. This reinforces the story we tell ourselves and that others tell about our separateness. It also furthers the stories of “being nice to have” rather than “valuable/essential.”
How Could We Shift What We’re Doing?
Massage therapists need to learn about pain and the impact of disease on the human body just like medical and nursing students do. Perhaps a massage therapist does not need to know these topics with the same depth as a nurse or physician, but learning some of this material with people from a different discipline would benefit everyone.
When we learn together, we hear each other’s questions and it opens otherwise unavailable opportunities to understand each other’s inspiration and concerns. We see how different our approaches are, but we also learn that there is a surprising level of overlap and, thereby, opportunity for collaboration. When we learn like this, we build trust and relationships that last into practice and which foster long-term collaborative care dynamics.
Consider this story: One of your grads is working in an oncology infusion suite and they notice cellulitis on a patient’s arm. Because that massage therapist had an opportunity (in your program) to do some of their training with nurses they have a trusting and collaborative sense of what it’s like to work with nurses. When they see the (life threatening!) cellulitis, they are able to share their observation in clear, clinical terms that allow that nurse to take the necessary next steps.
That kind of learning and trust does not develop when massage therapists are taken into a medical school classroom to give massages or when we take massage students into a hospital so they can “do massage in a hospital.”
The trust happens when we learn how to provide care together with other students of healthcare disciplines.
It happens when we practice practicing together.
It happens when massage therapy stops behaving as non-essential.
It happens when massage therapy schools prioritize preparing their students to talk about their work, what they’re learning, and its impact.
It happens when we build a new narrative that invites reconsideration of the “nice to have” story healthcare has always told about massage.
Because, let’s be honest, the existing narrative (ours and theirs) isn’t even about massage therapists; it’s really about rubbing.
A shared class module could look SO many different ways, but here’s a rough outline:
1. Introduction & Role Clarification (15 Minutes)
Overview: Define the biopsychosocial model of pain, addressing both acute and chronic conditions.
Goal: Establish a shared vocabulary about pain mechanisms and scope.
Discipline Spotlights: Small groups discuss how their unique scopes of practice (nursing vs. massage therapy) contribute to patient outcomes.
2. Collaborative Assessment & Red Flags (25 Minutes)
Assessment Tools: Review multidisciplinary pain scales. Nurses highlight comprehensive documentation methods, and massage therapists share about tissue palpation and movement-based assessments.
Triage & Red Flags: Discuss when pain may require a more medically-based assessment (e.g., neuropathy, nerve impingement) and establish safe boundaries for when physical modalities should be paused or adapted and possibly when pharmacological interventions may be masking or exacerbating pain
3. Case Study & Team Planning (35 Minutes)
Interactive Scenario: Teams review a complex patient case (e.g., a post-surgical or chronic back pain patient).
Intervention Mapping: Brainstorm multimodal treatment plans combining pharmacological management (administered by nurses) and massage therapy (administered by massage therapists)
Documentation: Practice charting a coordinated care plan.
4. Debrief & Wrap-up (15 Minutes)
Group Discussion: Review the case studies together and discuss how coordinated communication between nurses and massage therapists could optimize patient recovery and reduce reliance on pharmacological therapies.
Feedback: Solicit learner input on team dynamics.
This might be the first in a handful of similar exchanges, during which both groups are learning about their own disciplines, but also broadening their understanding of the value and indications for the other. And well-prepared massage therapy students are inviting nurses to think about them as collaborators and fellow healthcare providers.
Certainly, we can’t just plug massage therapy students into these settings and expect magic.
We need to prepare them to have these conversations where collective learning can take place.
We need to teach them to notice when they “should” have knowledge of something and when it’s just an excellent chance to learn a useful thing that will broaden their perspective as a provider.
We need to help them understand that nursing, medicine and physical therapy all have structures, measures, other rubrics of care, and patient assessment that massage therapy is not universally taught.
We also need to tell them it’s okay that this is true, but it’s also an invitation to start thinking about what those kinds of tools might look like for massage therapy.
Education Shapes Identity
I recognize that Katie’s experience and the data from which she draws in her blog is from nursing education. Massage therapy doesn’t have equivalent research yet. As a result, I often hear educators and students alike say, “We’re not nurses. This won’t work for us.”
I disagree and this seems like an excellent opportunity to generate some meaningful data.
Every time we slip into this “we’re not them/they’re not us” thinking, we miss an important opportunity to learn from and with other healthcare professions.
Imagine a massage therapist graduating from your program. They are working in a spa or a franchise and they notice something concerning on/with a client’s body. Because of the choices you made about thoughtful IPE in your program, that therapist has the language and the skills to talk with the client about their concern and make a real and reliable referral to the right kind of provider, while maybe even talking about how they could collaborate in that client’s care with this other provider.
Healwell has been offering hospital-based, interdisciplinary continuing education for massage therapists since 2011. We’ve trained hundreds of practicing MTs in these programs. Some students choose these courses because they want to work in hospitals. Some do not. Even the people who take these courses knowing they don’t plan to work in a hospital describe the interdisciplinary exposure they experienced as uniquely and surprisingly valuable for private and franchise practice.
Mentorship and Modeling Are Key
Massage therapy education could be cultivating graduates who can enter the profession not just mechanically skilled, but clinically competent and collaboration ready.
Studies (in nursing and medicine) show that IPE: 1,2,3,4,5
Increases professional identity formation
Increases early-career collaborative practice
Strengthens workplace culture
Improves patient outcomes
Yes, these are nursing and medical education outcomes, but massage therapists will need these things if we are going to own our jurisdiction.
Seems worth a shot, right?
Why We Keep Missing It
I can see massage school owners shaking their heads. “Our students don’t plan to work with others.” Students also dismiss the value of IPE. “I’ll be in private practice or working in a spa or a franchise. I won’t be collaborating, so this is a waste of time.”
This perspective couldn’t be more off the mark.
In fact, it is expressly (and correctly) stated in the introduction of the Model Practice Act written by the Federation of Massage Therapy Boards: Massage Therapists are often a first point of contact for the consumer in prevention, identification, assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of many pathologies and conditions.
They’re talking about all massage therapists. Not just the ones who will work in places where people who know they’re sick go for care. Consumers don’t know what we don’t know…and neither do we.
This is not a customer service issue. It’s a safety issue we must take seriously.
As the general population gets sicker, the gap between what we know and what our patients and clients need us to know gets bigger every day. Learning with other healthcare providers could go a long way toward helping our students understand their responsibility in the constellation of care and how to meet that responsibility.
It’s also an issue of career longevity. Massage therapy is already a lonely business. When you add being unprepared for the real demands and expectations of the job, you’ve just magnified the effects of that isolation. By a lot. (Ask Corey Rivera to tell you about iso-strain. It’s no joke.)
Imagine a student who graduates from your program and goes on to work with a chiropractor. The chiropractor shows the massage therapist what they have seen on a patient’s x-ray and because of the skills that therapist learned in your program (learning with and from other students who will find themselves in the same situations) your graduate and their new colleague, the chiropractor, have a conversation that results in co-creation of a collaborative treatment plan.
Collaboration skills have not been a standard, structured part of massage therapy education. Most of us don’t even learn the skills to collaborate with each other.
Let me say it again: Collaboration is not just for hospital-based and oncology or dialysis massage therapists. The benefits of well-structured IPE could be reaped in chiropractic clinics, PT clinics and yes, even spas, franchises and the treatment room in the den.
The Barriers are Real and Surmountable
Organizational, structural, cultural, financial, and curricular barriers can all make IPE challenging to implement. 6,7,8,9,10
Massage therapy also starts at an additional deficit because we have not created a world in which other disciplines are clamoring to learn from and with us.
Take a deep breath with me here.
These are hard facts about real barriers.
And they are barriers we can address…together.
Meaningful IPE creation and implementation will face some real challenges for a decade or two, but that’s not a reason to abandon it.
It’s a reason to get started.
Now.
Personally, I find it deeply helpful, when I’m beginning something difficult or large in scope, to imagine what it will look and feel like when it’s complete. In Katie’s blog, she writes about the IPE events that she and her colleagues at the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care have coordinated in recent years. “These events bring together students and faculty from kinesiology, nursing, social work, and speech-language pathology for a full day of collaborative learning.” And they have fun! They build relationships and respect and networks for coordinated thoughtful care.
Imagine that. Feel that. You and your students are having fun, while learning. Feeling energized, connected and building respect and understanding within the healthcare community.
It’s time for us to stop sending them on field trips. Let’s put our heads and hearts together to create opportunities that prepare them for careers.
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Homeyer, S., Hoffmann, W., Hingst, P., Oppermann, R. F., & Dreier-Wolfgramm, A. (2018). Effects of interprofessional education for medical and nursing students: enablers, barriers and expectations for optimizing future interprofessional collaboration - a qualitative study. BMC nursing, 17, 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-018-0279-x
Grand-Guillaume-Perrenoud, J. A., Cignacco, E., MacPhee, M., Carron, T., & Peytremann-Bridevaux, I. (2025). How does interprofessional education affect attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration? A rapid realist synthesis. Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice, 30(3), 879–933. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-024-10368-6
Zenani, N. E., Sehularo, L. A., Gause, G., & Chukwuere, P. C. (2023). The contribution of interprofessional education in developing competent undergraduate nursing students: integrative literature review. BMC nursing, 22(1), 315. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01482-8
Grand-Guillaume-Perrenoud, J. A., Cignacco, E., MacPhee, M., Carron, T., & Peytremann-Bridevaux, I. (2025). How does interprofessional education affect attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration? A rapid realist synthesis. Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice, 30(3), 879–933. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-024-10368-6
Reeves, S., Perrier, L., Goldman, J., Freeth, D., & Zwarenstein, M. (2013). Interprofessional education: effects on professional practice and healthcare outcomes (update). The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2013(3), CD002213. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002213.pub3
Kheir, E., Ali, Q., & Fahal, A. (2025). Obstacles to effective implementation of interprofessional education in Sudan. BMC medical education, 25(1), 1444. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-08021-w
Chávez-Valenzuela, P., Kappes, M., Sambuceti, C. E., & Díaz-Guio, D. A. (2025). “Challenges in the implementation of inter-professional education programs with clinical simulation for health care students: A scoping review”. Nurse education today, 146, 106548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2024.106548
Kheir, E., Ali, Q., & Fahal, A. (2025). Obstacles to effective implementation of interprofessional education in Sudan. BMC medical education, 25(1), 1444. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-08021-w
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Sunguya, B. F., Hinthong, W., Jimba, M., & Yasuoka, J. (2014). Interprofessional education for whom? --challenges and lessons learned from its implementation in developed countries and their application to developing countries: a systematic review. PloS one, 9(5), e96724. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0096724