Interprofessional education: it’s happening!

Abstract

Introduction: Integrating interprofessional education (IPE) into an academic medical sciences center is an innovating strategy that has been adopted by faulty at a medial sciences university.  As home to six professional colleges charged with preparing students to become highly skilled healthcare professionals, faculty recognize the importance of an interprofessional approach to education.

Methods: Two approaches include the use of the simulation center and a student-led community based clinic. In the simulation certer, nursing students visit a simulated home health patient with diabetes and present findings at a team conference where medicine, pharmacy, and nursing develop a plan of care. Afterward, the patient is seen by the students in an acute situation and debriefing follows the eperience.  Another interprofessional experience involves student and preceptors at a free community-based clinic providing care for an underserved population.  Students see patients as teams and present findings to an interprofessional team of preceptors.

Results: IPE experiences bridge education and practice eliminating existing educational silos.  Students gain confidence in the core interprofessional competencies: communication, ethics, roles, and teamwork with the goals of improving quality patient outcomes.  Students are prepared to embrace a new paradigm of healthcare delivery.

Discussion: The major challenge for involving student across professional is the coordination of course schedules.  There must be share conviction that valuable input from each profession developing a plan of care is important to obtaining better patient outcomes.  Preceptors also learn from other educators participating, contributing to a true collegial atmosphere and role modeling for our future health care professionals.