Interprofessional Education II

Catalog description

Interprofessional Education (IPE) occurs "when students or members of two or more professions learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care" (CAIPE 1997, revised 2013). Through IPE, students develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to prepare them for interprofessional collaboration, defined by the WHO as "when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, carers (caregivers), and communities to deliver the highest quality of care." Over the last decade there has been a growing emphasis on developing the ability of all professionals to more effectively communicate and collaborate in the care of individuals, families, communities and populations in order to achieve the triple aim: enhancement of the patient or client experience, improvement in population health outcomes, and delivering more cost-effective care. With the triple aim in mind, Collaborative Practice I focuses on the domain of interprofessional collaboration. In addition to serving individuals, in this domain healthcare and partner professionals collaborate using population health and community engagement approaches in order to improve the health and well-being of individuals, families, communities, and populations. Therefore, students in this interprofessional service learning experience will learn teamwork skills through active participation in an authentic and meaningful community-based project that is focused on health and well-being for individuals, families, communities, or populations. Collaborative Practice I serves as an introductory IPE experience for dental, genetic counseling, medical, nursing, nutrition, physician assistant, psychology, social work and speech-language pathology students at CWRU. Depending on the School and program, the Collaborative Practice I experience is a free-standing course or integrated into one or more courses, blocks, rotations, etc. By the end of the experience, students will have acquired basic readiness to participate in subsequent interprofessional collaborative experiences.