UNE team presents at National IPEC Institute
A team from UNE presented at the National Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Institute in the Washington, D.C. area on January 15, 2014. About 200 senior clinical faculty and administrators representing universities from across the country attended the Institute in order to learn how to bring an interprofessional team-based care approach to educating health professional students in clinical settings, with the ultimate goal of improving patient safety.
UNE’s 75-minute presentation was held on the final day of the three-day institute, and was a team presentation, featuring two students who participated in an interprofessional clinical rotation at the Family Medicine Institute in Augusta, Maine. Michelle O’Meara, from Sanford, Maine, and a 4th year pharmacy student at UNE’s College of Pharmacy, and Michael Light, from Liberty, Maine, and a 4th year medical student at UNE’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, shared with the audience stories and lessons learned from their time working together as a student team.
Although both had concerns about what it would be like to work with students from another profession, through their joint encounters with patients, they learned a great deal from each other, and learned the importance of approaching patient care as a team.
Accompanying and presenting with Michelle and Michael were Dora Anne Mills, MD, MPH, FAAP, vice president for Clinical Affairs; Shelley Cohen Konrad, PhD, LCSW, associate professor in the School of Social Work and director of UNE’s Center of Excellence in Interprofessional Education; and Karen Pardue, PhD, RN, associate dean for Undergraduate Education in the Westbrook College of Health Professions.
Having attended the 2012 National IPEC Institute (along with Lisa Pagnucco, Pharm D, associate professor in UNE’s College of Pharmacy and David Mokler, Pharm D, professor of pharmacology in UNE’s College of Osteopathic Medicine), Drs. Mills, Cohen Konrad, and Pardue, were able to share with the audience their experiences and lessons learned since attending the Institute.
With estimates now indicating that as many as 440,000 Americans die every year due to medical errors, and with 80% of such deaths due to root causes of poor collaboration, communication, and/or coordination, interprofessional education of health professional students is seen as a critical strategy to addressing patient safety. UNE’s presentation at the National IPEC Institute is one of many indicators of how much UNE is on the forefront of the patient safety movement.
About the National Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC)
In 2009 six national education associations of schools of the health professions formed a collaborative to promote and encourage constituent efforts that would advance substantive interprofessional learning experiences to help prepare future clinicians for team-based care of patients. These organizations that represent higher education in allopathic and osteopathic medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, and public health would come to create core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice that can guide curricula development at all health professions schools.