They’re back! Students arrive on campus, get health care primer

New students from all UNMC programs participate in the inaugural Interprofessional Orientation Event in the Sorrell Center Student Plaza on Wednesday.

How would you handle work complaints aired on Facebook? What if a student found a patient’s phone number in a chart and asked them out? What if a colleague asked you to provide a urine sample for them?

Those were some of the situations more than 500 incoming UNMC students discussed during Wednesday’s inaugural Interprofessional Orientation Event.

The first day of classes for most programs is Monday.

During the three-hour event, UNMC students in Omaha and Lincoln were divided into about 50 small groups facilitated by UNMC faculty. There, they learned about professional behaviors, interprofessional collaboration and the professional code of ethics.

More Back to School coverage Read UNMC Today next week for a series of stories about campus issues and developments at UNMC this fall.

“With health care reform efforts, the team approach to treating patients will be more prevalent than ever before,” said Gary Yee, Pharm.D., associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Pharmacy and chair of the Interprofessional Education Curriculum Committee on campus that planned the event. “This event gave students an opportunity to learn about other disciplines, as well as explore various areas of professionalism.”

It also caused them to ponder their stance in various ethical dilemmas.

“Mostly, this was an exercise to remind them that they are now enrolled in a health professions program, and they must think and behave differently than they did in high school or as an undergraduate student,” Dr. Yee said.