UNMC steps up interprofessional education efforts

Patients benefit when health care providers work together.

Increased interprofessional education is a strategic focus on the UNMC campus.

Below, Devin Nickol, M.D., assistant dean for interprofessional education (IPE) in Academic Affairs, talks with UNMC Today about what the medical center does to train students to better cross disciplines to care for patients.

What is the goal of IPE?

The ultimate goal … is to improve patient outcomes by improving health care teamwork.

Many may think health professionals already work across disciplines. So why is there need to train students in this area?

Traditionally, the structure of most training programs has been surprisingly effective at preventing interaction between students from different disciplines. The result of such “silo-based” training is that many graduates enter practice without a clear idea of their role within the care team, and even less understanding of the role of other team members.

What does UNMC do in terms of IPE?

“Traditionally, the structure of most training programs has been surprisingly effective at preventing interaction between students from different disciplines.” Devin Nickol, M.D.

There are many examples on campus of students from different training programs working in close proximity. Those situations tend to reflect the natural types of interactions students will encounter in practice.

The next step is to design an explicit interprofessional curriculum to be included in those activities. Additionally, campus-wide IPE days have been held twice annually for the last several years. About 500 students participated in the event earlier this month, which focused on professionalism. The event in February will focus on team roles and give students the opportunity to explore the benefits of effective teamwork.

We expect that in the near future, each training program will be able to define a set of IPE requirements for its trainees.

Can you give an example of an ideal patient care setting in which interprofessionalism has been instilled?

The UNMC SHARING Clinics are a wonderful example of students from a broad-range of training programs combining their skills for the benefit of a patient population. Additionally, the Service Learning Academy of the College of Public Health provides community-based interprofessional experiences targeting the needs of several local populations.