Interprofessional Education: Fostering greater communication and collaboration among health professions students
*Corresponding Author:
Copyright: © 2020 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
IPE Day is an innovative approach to teaching interprofessional education and collaboration. The nursing department at Grossmont College partnered with other allied health departments on campus to plan and implement a mega simulation experience which now happens annually. For each event, 125-150 students from five health care professions come together to care for a patient as an interdisciplinary team. Teams are comprised of students from cardiovascular technology (CVT), occupational therapy assistant (OTA), orthopedic technology (OTC), registered nurse (RN), and respiratory therapy (RT) programs. In addition to participating in a live patient-actor simulation, the students also work in their interdisciplinary teams to address ethical and end-of-life topics, participate in teambuilding activities, and explore the roles and skills of each discipline. The objectives of the experience focus on 1) Values/Ethics of Interprofessional Practice, 2) Roles/ Responsibilities, 3) Interprofessional Communication, and 4) Teamwork. The objectives are based on the Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice developed by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (2016). The enthusiasm surrounding this project has been infectious, so this presentation promises to share information on the planning steps used to create an innovative project like this. Organizational pearls, example simulation scenarios with tips for standardization, and data showing the success of this project will also be included.
