Background/Objective: The number of veterans and their families seeking healthcare and support within civilian communities is increasing worldwide. There is a need for healthcare providers to provide sensitive, comprehensive care for veterans with both physical and behavioral health conditions. Many civilian providers are unfamiliar with veterans' issues and need training on military culture and combat experiences in order to provide compassionate, high quality care. An interprofessional (IPE) course to increase health professional students' understanding of military culture and the associated health problems of veterans was implemented and evaluated.

Background/Objective: Competency in health professions education when separated from culture is a ‘detached mastery’ of a discreet skill; there are no values considered, no human behind the understanding. This can result in an uneven understanding, proficiency, and commitment concerning individuals’ cultural differences. To increase cultural competency and improve care delivery to veterans, health professional students, participated in an interprofessional education immersion with clinical practicum at a Veteran’s Administration primary care clinic.Methods: Fifty-four graduate students from nursing, clinical psychology, pharmacy and social work participated in an interprofessional education course on military culture. Students’ knowledge and attitudes concerning veterans were evaluated at the start and end of the 8-week immersion course.Results: In both the Knowledge Assessment, a 10-item survey covering the core aspects of the course content, and Health Professionals’ Attitudes Toward Veterans Scale, student knowledge and attitudes improved relating to veterans care.Conclusions: Veterans seeking care in veterans’ and civilian facilities require a culturally competent health professional workforce. Interprofessional education coursework specifically focused on veterans and military culture has shown promise in increasing knowledge and compassion in health professional students working with veteran patients.

Background: Gaps remain in rural primary care. To fill this gap, nurse practioner (NP) graduates may need additional training using a rural-specific curriculum framework to be ready to practice in rural primary care. Method: Ten NP students participated in a 16-week rural immersion. Preand postsurveys, online journaling, self-guided testing, simulation events, and postcourse focus groups were used to evaluate student progress using directed content analysis to identify key themes and to verify, organize, and categorize the collected data. Results: Students reported gains in rural culture competence, increased skills in health literacy and patient advocacy, improved communication and negotiating ethical issues with patients, and increased awareness of challenges in rural health care and the importance of resilience. Conclusion: An immersion learning experience with targeted didactic content and clinical practicum in rural primary care can help to enhance NP students' confidence and technical abilities for providing optimal rural primary care. [ J Nurs Educ . 2020;59(10):581–584.]

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Several expert panels have recommended interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) as an integral part of improving the quality and safety of care delivery to meet the complex health needs of patients. IPCP is attained by collaborative communications between two or more health professionals from various disciplines who share in clinical decisionmaking. IPCP increases patient satisfaction and improves health outcomes, yet few health professional students learn how to work within collaborative interprofessional teams. The health professional programs at one Midwestern University implemented Interprofessional Education (IPE) programs with the goal of facilitating IPCP team work and to foster effective communications among the health professional students. The successes that resulted were positive comments from students, faculty, and clinical staff and increased student confidence in interactions with other disciplines. The challenges that were encountered include scheduling difficulties, apathy of faculty and students, and incompatible clinical practice experiences. Understanding challenges and negotiating ambiguity of implementing IPE/ IPCP community-based programs is important in developing a well-trained interprofessional workforce and closing the gap between health professionals' education and clinical practice experiences.