Stumbling and Succeeding Together: a New Medical School’s Collaborative Initiative to Elevate Interprofessionalism as a Signature Hallmark in Training Future Healthcare Leaders

Abstract

The process of creating a longitudinal interprofessionalism curriculum was initiated through the collaborative efforts of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, the Jefferson College of Health Sciences and the Batten Leadership Institute of Hollins University. A year-long Interprofessionalism Leadership course, that constitutes the first part of the Interprofessionalism domain that spans the four years of medical school at VTCSOM, was designed and implemented. The strategy for creating this course and subsequest alterations based on student feedback and faculty reflection are provided. The commentary provides experiential insight for other schools embarking on curricular revisions revolving around interprofessional healthcare education.Keywords Interprofessional leadership . Year-long longitudinal IPE course . Institutional collaboration Medical, nursing, and physician assistant schools share a common goal of producing graduates who are technically competent, compassionate, and dedicated and who work effectively as part of the healthcare team. Healthcare educational institutions are challenged to teach vital behaviors [1] that will translate into a sustained capacity to promote a healthy team culture. Studies widely support the value and role of interprofessional practices as precursors to the highest quality patient care through enhanced perspective teamwork and creative problem solving [2][3][4][5]. Students who learn alongside other students in a team-based, community-focused environment demonstrated a better understanding of theoretical concepts underpinning teamwork and were better able to apply theories in a practical concept [6].The call for changes in medical education is being made on many fronts across many healthcare professions to include interprofessional healthcare education and practice in undergraduate and graduate medical education programs [7][8][9]. Incorporating significant interprofessionalism content and experiences into existing medical education programs has been a challenge due to crowded medical student schedules typically built around rigid traditional departmentally based courses, differing schedules of the other professional students such as nursing and physician assistant programs, difficulty in matching the learners at varying stages of educational development and experience within their respective programs, and the emphasis of the first 2 years of medical school on US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 content mastery. Even so, some medical schools have managed to incorporate combined opportunities for interprofessional education and practice but the programs have been met with varying degrees of success and completion. Curricular approaches include didactic courses, community-based experiences, day-long seminars, sporadic interprofessional healthcare symposia, and high-fidelity simulation exercises The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine is a new 4-year allopathic medical school in Roanoke, Virginia, that matriculated its first class of 42 students in Augus...

Using a culinary health curriculum to teach teamwork skills: A new interprofessional education experience for medical, nursing and physician assistant students

“…[1][2][3][4] Our medical school, in collaboration with a partner institution (Radford University), has a ten-year tradition of offering IPE whereby students from three disciplines learn together during a variety of activities. 5,6 The IPE curriculum is delivered to pre-clinical students from medicine, nursing and physician assistant programs (N = 130-140). In considering novel ways to refine the IPE curriculum, it became apparent that team activity in a large commercial training kitchen could potentially address both clinical nutrition and interprofessional teamwork.…”

“…We implemented the two-track system by delivering content simultaneously in both tracks over an eight-week period. Most elements of the traditional roles and scopes curricular track have been described elsewhere, 5,6 and involved students learning about programs of study, scopes of practice, team leadership in healthcare, professional role controversies and patient voice/experiences. The new culinary medicine track featured three components: 1) delivery of core content pertaining to clinical nutrition; 2) team-based meal preparation and service; and 3) community outreach.…”

A Pilot Study Assessment of Medical Student Knowledge and System Citizenship Attitudes Pertaining to Health Systems Science

“…As part of a comprehensive curriculum renewal project described elsewhere, 13 our school has embarked upon the development of a new, four-year HSS curriculum for medical students, including the incorporation of new content into an existing interprofessional education curriculum involving first-year medical, nursing and physician assistant students. In partnership with another health professions college wherein we have established a strong foundational curriculum in interprofessional education, 14 we worked with faculty colleagues to introduce this new content (labeled as health systems science and interprofessional practice, or HSSIP) beginning with the fall 2020 semester. The new curriculum will eventually encompass all 4 years of the medical school experience.…”

Building Health Systems Science Education from the Core Domain of Interprofessional Education at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

“…A significant overarching component of HSS is interprofessional education (IPE). The VTCSOM has a decade-long track record of providing IPE, including emphasis on team science and the value of healthcare teams in care delivery [ 7 , 8 ]. From the inception of our medical school, we have delivered IPE content in collaboration with our partner institutions, Radford University Carilion (RUC, formerly the Jefferson College of Health Sciences) and Carilion Clinic.…”