More than 200 students from Social Work, Physician Assistant Studies, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Nursing and Pharmacy participated in their first interprofessional education event on Tuesday evening, September 13th.
The goal of this first event is to introduce and get students excited about IPE @ CUW – they will participate in 6-8 hours of IPE programming over a 2 year period as they prepare for clinical rotations and internships. Students assembled as a large group in Todd Wehr auditorium where they were given a brief presentation by IPE faculty champions that outlined the value of IPE, and in particular, how team-based, interprofessional care works to reduce medical errors.
Students then broke out into 24 smaller groups (9-10 students) where faculty facilitators engaged students in small group exercises that incorporated differing “communication styles” into problem-solving and team building exercises. Students worked on solving hypothetical “parking problems” on CUW’s campus, to building “paper chains” as a team, to debriefing and discussing as a group the ways in which good, interprofessional communication can reduce medical errors.
Student feedback was very positive both through standardized assessment tools as well as in person or through emails sent to the Office of IPE @ CUW. Feedback, whether positive or in the form of constructive criticism, is always encouraged as way to improve programming and effectively translate the importance of IPE as students build their health and social care skills here at CUW. Congratulations to Group #16 for winning the paper chain competition, which entitled team members to a gift card, compliments of IPE @ CUW (We want IPE to be fun as well!).
For questions or information pertaining to interprofessional education at CUW, please contact the Campus Coordinator, Michael Oldani at x2779 or at michael.oldani@cuw.edu.
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