CHCS - Perspectives Winter/Spring 2016

10 • NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY CAPE Corner Embracing Interprofessional Education and Interprofessional Practice T he CHCS Best Practices Forum, which is a component of the Center for Academic and Professional Excellence (CAPE), has placed a strong focus on the significance of interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional practice (IPP). The IPE Best Practices Subcommittee, formerly led by Jacqueline Reese Walter, Ph.D., OTR/L, is diligently working on constructing methods of promoting IPE curriculum and activities at all NSU campuses. Interprofessional education activities are a vital part of health care education and are now being included in many program accreditation standards. Interprofessional education is when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. Interprofessional education has shown to provide health care personnel with the interprofessional skills needed to be “collaborative practice-ready” when caring for patients. Overall, IPE and collaborative practice improve health care access, clinical resources, outcomes for patients with chronic disease, patient care, and safety. IPE is also linked to decreased patient complications, length of hospital stay, tension among caregivers, staff turnover, hospital admissions, clinical errors, and mortality rates. 1 Exposure to interprofessional activities will provide students with the skills needed to practice health care more effectively and improve health outcomes. The CHCS IPE Best Practices Subcommittee is focusing on the following goals: • developing, conducting, and evaluating IPE educational seminars for effective IPE faculty member training • enhancing interprofessional team approaches in NSU clinics and clinical educational sites • demonstrating evidence of regional campus involve- ment in IPE/IPP activities • establishing formal IPE initiatives within curric- ula and aligning with accreditation standards across disciplines By working toward these goals, the IPE Subcommittee hopes to gain full faculty support and involvement to ultimately improve student experiences and health care outcomes. One of the crucial measures of the committee’s initiatives is to also promote and emphasize IPE activities at all NSU campuses. Physician assistant students in Fort Myers annually host Project SEED (Serving Everyone and Embracing Diversity) and invite nursing students and others to join them in this collaborative event. Additionally, a number of NSU programs, including the physician assistant (PA) programs in Orlando and Jacksonville, have partici- pated in IPE simulation events. 1 From the World Health Organization, framework for action on interprofessional education and collaborative practice, w ww.who.int/hrh/resources/framework_action/en/ , published in 2010 and accessed on April 23, 2015. BY SUZIE SAGUES WOLF, M.S., PAS, PA-C, CHAIR, IPE BEST PRACTICES SUBCOMMITTEE, AND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT PROGRAM—JACKSONVILLE