The leafy-green U-M campus may have seemed quiet during the summer, but champions for IPE were busy learning and leading, at home and on the road.
Train the Trainers
Two University of Michigan faculty teams participated in three days of workshops in Seattle designed to prepare them to lead in IPE across the learning continuum—from classroom-based activities to collaborative practice in clinical and community sites. The “train the trainer” program was organized through the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education and sponsored by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
Caption for photo above: Members of the two U-M faculty teams are pictured here, with consultants from the Taubman Health Sciences Library (THSL) and Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT): Back row from left: Marilyn Filter (U-M Flint Nursing and Health Professions and Studies), Emily Ginier (THSL), Jolene Bostwick (Pharmacy), Diana Ellis (Dentistry), Tom Templin (Kinesiology). Front row from left: Melissa Gross (Kinesiology), Debbie Mattison (Social Work), Minal Patel (SPH), Gina Shereda (CRLT).
Michigan IPE at the National Summit
At the National Center Summit on the Future of IPE in Minneapolis in late August, a cohort of U-M faculty and staff were aboard for two days of visioning and collaborating. Frank Ascione, director of the Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education, mainly attended sessions focused on building a successful IPE program. “From what I heard, we are on the right track,” he said.
Discussions at the summit around how to shift grassroots projects to organizational initiatives caught the attention of attendee Leslie Smith (U-M-Flint, and an inaugural U-M Interprofessional Leadership Fellow). “Professions such as PT and OT are trying to catch up with IPEC initiatives,” she said. “We are ready and wanting to collaborate.”
The overarching theme of the summit was the intersection between interprofessional education and collaborative practice. National Center director Barbara Brandt advised attendees to stay attuned to the rapid changes in healthcare, calling out value-based care as a “forcing event.” Opening plenary panelists warned that health professions must not respond to these changes in isolation and called for dismantling what is often described as professional tribalism. “If we don’t change the culture, we will never adapt to changing models,” said Dr. Jenny Mladenovic, executive vice president and provost of Oregon Health and Science University.
In Brief:
- Inaugural IPE Presentation at U-M Health Science Teaching Academy Orientation: CRLT’s summer program for U-M’s new health science faculty included an IPE working lunch session. A presentation by the Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education Executive Committee’s Carol Anne Murdoch-Kinch (Dentistry) and Assistant Director Anica Madeo was followed by a panel with several IPE colleagues joining in. This is the first year HSTA training included specific IPE content.
- New Health Science Deans Arrive with IPE Expertise: The new deans at U-M’s schools of nursing, kinesiology, and social work arrived this summer with significant background work related to IPE. School of Nursing Dean Patricia D. Hurn was most recently vice chancellor for research and innovation at University of Texas System, where she focused on collaborative bio-health research models, science education innovation, and research technologies. School of Kinesiology Dean Lori Ploutz-Snyder came to U-M from the exercise physiology and countermeasures project at NASA Johnson Space Center and Universities Space Research Association; earlier in her academic career, she was a research professor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at SUNY Upstate Medical University, and was engaged in course and curricular development at Syracuse University. Social Work Dean Lynn Videka was dean of Silver School of Social Work at New York University; she focused on models of integrated healthcare, blending her professional education in nursing and social work with interests in health and behavioral health.
- U-M Health System Leader Calls for Data-Based Care and Collaboration: The straightforward contention that “physicians and nurses can dramatically improve healthcare by comparing notes” is supported from a Big Data perspective in a recent essay by Marschall Runge, dean of U-M Medical School and executive VP for medical affairs. He explains how the Collaborative Quality Initiative (CQI) program enables healthcare systems to collect, analyze, and share real-time evidence about what works in clinical settings. “Curing health care with a dose of big data and common sense” was published online in The Conversation on August 29.