U-M faculty who are interested in proposing a new course, clinical experience or learning module, please visit the IPE Opportunity Proposal page.

Learn more about recent news related to the Center for IPE’s courses and offerings.

Fall IPE Offerings:

Introduction to IPE

Fall & Winter Module / Required for most health science students
The Introduction to Interprofessional Education online module introduces students to the current healthcare landscape through the perspectives of patients and families, faculty, as well as peer student leaders. The 3 to 3.5-hour module integrates introductory learning on the importance of interprofessional education & collaboration, exposing students to all 5 of the IPE competencies. The content is appropriate for students across the health science schools and is ideal for learners early in their programs. 

Breaking Bad News 

Fall & Winter / Experiential Opportunity / Elective
A fourth-year medical student Standardized Patient Interaction modified to include social work students. The learning module was updated to include the roles of both specialties, and together the students practice breaking bad news in a simulated clinical scenario.

CALM IPE Simulations

Year-Round / Simulation / Physical Therapy and Nursing
UM-Flint simulation-enhanced interprofessional education activities to improve students’ skills in teams.

Death, Loss and Grief

Fall  / Course / Elective for MSW and PharmD
Addresses the theoretical framework of human loss and grief from a culturally and philosophically diverse perspective. Why and how humans grieve is examined, as well as how grieving is affected by type of loss, socioeconomic and cultural factors, individual personality and family functioning. Course offered Fall as SW 617 – Section 001

Social Work in the University of Michigan Student-Run Free Clinic

Fall / Course / Elective for social work
Designed to support positive client health outcomes utilizing social work values, methods, and skills in a community-based interdisciplinary student-run health clinic that includes student-practitioners from schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and social work. This 1-credit course helps students understand roles and responsibilities of each discipline and the importance of effective communication and collaboration in clinical decision-making with place-based learning. Course number 787.001(37583). Class meets on five Fridays from 12:00-1, with three clinic meetings Sat. and Weds. Contact Rick Barinbaum at barinbau@umich.edu for more information.

Trauma-Informed Practice Mini-Certificate Courses

Fall & Winter / 3-Course Mini-Certificate / Elective
Co-led by professors from Education, Nursing, and Social Work and listed as SSW 540, EDUC 540 and HS540, “Trauma Basics” is the prerequisite to “Trauma-informed Practice” (541, Fall) and “Creating and Sustaining Trauma-informed Systems” (542, Winter). The mini-certificate will be awarded to students who complete all three of these 1-credit mini-courses. Focus is on trauma-informed practice and interprofessional roles, responsibilities and communication,  and how teachers, social workers, and nurses can work together to address trauma in schools.

Understanding and Improving the U.S. Healthcare System MOOC

Fall  / Course /  Required or Elective
This MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) is offered annually at U-M to further understanding about the structure, accomplishments and shortcomings of the U.S. health care system and how to improve it. Learn more, or register now for the 6-week interactive/interprofessional course as an open learner, or with PUBHLTH 626 for 1 credit.

University of Michigan Student-Run Free Clinic

Year-Round / Experiential Course & Opportunity / Elective
Began as a medical student co-curricular; expanded for nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and other students. Read more about the clinic and its interprofessional aspect and reach

Winter 2023 IPE Offerings

Longitudinal Interprofessional Family-based Experience (LIFE): 

Winter / Co-curricular activity / IPE Foundational prerequisites required
LIFE connects teams of interprofessional student (who have applied for admission) with patients who have a chronic illness. Students participating in this experience will be immersed in IPE competencies as they learn about the social determinants of health that impact the patient/family’s interface with the health care system and community. Students must have completed the Introduction to IPE online course in order to participate.

Team-Based Clinical Decision Making

Winter / Course / Required for DDS, MD, MSW, NP, PharmD
Newly longitudinally focused on health equity, this longtime foundational large-scale IPE course is for students in dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work. Boosts understanding of how each discipline contributes to healthcare teams, the importance of effective communication, and the role of collaboration in clinical decision making. Student teams rotate through modules taught at all five schools by interdisciplinary pairs of faculty.  Listed as Dentistry 760, Health Sciences 505, Med Admin 714, Pharmacy 714, Social Work 714 .

Current Issues and Interprofessional Perspectives in Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety

Winter / Course / Elective
Listed as EHS 668 and IOE 837, this  1-credit course’s participants include students from industrial and operations engineering, industrial hygiene, occupational epidemiology, and occupational health nursing.

Health and Disabilities IPE Elective

Winter / Course / Elective for pharmacy, nursing, social work, medicine, dentistry
Listed as Pharmacy 517, this class contributes to the creation of an interprofessional health care workforce capable of providing a person-centered approach to caring for patients who have disabilities, to improve quality of care and reduce disparities in health outcomes. This is a 2-credit course offered Thursday 3-5 in Winter semester, for pharmacy, nursing, social work, medicine, dentistry students. Contact the instructor with any questions about registration.

Interprofessional Team-Based Care (HS687)

Winter / Online course housed at Nursing / For masters-level students across the health sciences for 2-credit 7-week session at beginning of the semester. 
This course allows graduate health professional students to gain an understanding of how each discipline contributes to the health care team, the importance of effective communication, and the role of team collaboration in clinical decision making. This is an online IPE course where students will engage in case-based team-based learning. Course is asynchronous, but student interprofessional teams arrange meetings that fit their schedules. To register, go to wolverineaccess.umich.edu and select HS687. You will then receive a message that the course is “closed” with instructions to fill out a survey/form to receive an “override” to register. Please note: This is only a measure to ensure we have enough diversity of disciplines to make the course a true IPE experience. Simply fill out the form, submit it, and wait for your registration to be approved! 

Previously Offered IPE Opportunities

Teams and Teamwork

Fall & Winter / Module / For students who have completed the Intro to IPE Module
Foundational course designed for students better to understand team dynamics and improve their team-building skills. 

Hospital Dentistry

Fall & Winter / Experiential Opportunity/ Elective
Clinical experience opportunity for dentistry and pharmacy students to work with medical residents.

Social Justice Grand Rounds

Fall / Event / Required for PharmD, Elective for SW, others
Unites students in social work and pharmacy, along with faculty and staff, in a collaborative effort to consider social injustice and ethical practice issues. After a case presentation, students meet in interprofessional groups for discussion and debrief. Designed to be relevant to IPE competencies of values and ethics, the understanding of roles and responsibilities, teamwork, and communication. 

In My Shoes – Autism Simulation

Winter / Simulation / Elective for Nursing, Social Work
This activity leverages virtual reality technology to simulate what it is like to have autism. There is dedicated time for students to then clarify and describe roles, work through a case study for an autistic patient, and create a plan of care.

Clemency and Decarceration for Battered Women Survivors Trafficking

Fall 2021 Course / Elective for graduate and professional students
Using problem-solving tools, multi-disciplinary teams will explore why these survivors are overlooked by our criminal-legal system, drawing on insights from social work, gender studies, humanities, sciences, policy, and law to develop innovative ways to challenge criminalization of survivors of violence. From the U-M Problem-Solving Initiative. 

Fixing Foster Care

Fall 2020 /Course / Elective for for graduate and professional students
Multidisciplinary student teams will hear from leading state and national foster care experts, and they will incorporate insights from law, social work, policy, and other fields. Students will also examine systems that contribute to the problem, including courts and child welfare agencies. At the conclusion of the course, students will present identified solutions to key stakeholders who can implement reforms. Apply via email to problemsolving@umich.edu even if the deadline applying has passed. From the U-M Problem-Solving Initiative. 

Obstacles to Providing Social Services in Michigan

Fall 2020 / Course / Elective for for graduate and professional students
Multidisciplinary student teams will focus on challenges to the delivery of social services in Michigan, including programs like Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, and cash assistance. Students will apply problem solving skills, learn from stakeholders and experts, and draw on insights from health sciences, public policy, law, and other fields to develop solutions that improve the delivery of social services to vulnerable populations. From the U-M Problem-Solving Initiative.

Challenges to Delivering Social Services in Michigan:

Winter / Course / Elective for graduate and professional students
The federal government funds key social services for the poor, but individual states are often responsible for overseeing the provision of them. In this class, students will focus on challenges to the delivery of social services in Michigan, including Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). They will engage with experts and work in interprofessional teams to apply problem-solving skills and incorporate ideas from public policy, law, health sciences, and other fields to develop solutions to challenges associated with delivering social services to vulnerable populations in Michigan. From the Law School’s Problem-Solving Initiative.

Campus Sexual Misconduct, Prevention and Response:

Winter / Course / Elective for graduate and professional students
In the U.S., campus sexual misconduct has health, social, economic, and academic consequences for students. At the same time, universities struggle to fashion effective responses in the face of external political, legal, and social pressure. Students will explore solutions to campus sexual misconduct, drawing on nursing, public policy, law, education, and other disciplines to develop a novel solution to the problem.  From the Law School’s Problem-Solving Initiative.

LBGTQ+ Communities and Human Trafficking

Course / Elective for graduate and professional students
Narratives, and interventions meant to aid trafficking victims often overlook LGBTQ+ communities and fail to address their needs. Students in this class will work with stakeholders and incorporate insights from law, social work, public policy, health sciences, and other fields to identify interventions designed to help LGBTQ+ trafficking victims. From the U-M Problem-Solving Initiative.

Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect

Course / Elective for graduate and professional students
Multidisciplinary teams of students will develop tools to identify at-risk children, mitigate risks of maltreatment and removal from the home, and engage with at-risk families. Students will incorporate evidence and ideas from education, law, health sciences, public policy, social work, information, and other fields to develop innovative solutions. From the U-M Problem-Solving Initiative.

Reducing Firearm Violence within Urban Communities

Course / Elective for graduate and professional students
Focused on underlying causes of firearm violence and exploring innovative health-science, public-policy, and criminal-justice problem-solving strategies to reduce negative firearm-related outcomes. Students will present final proposal to an expert review panel. From the U-M Problem-Solving Initiative.

Concussion: Reducing Brain Injuries in Youth Football

Course / Elective for graduate and professional students
For reducing the risk of brain injury, students will work in multidisciplinary teams on novel solutions that draw from law, engineering, medicine, business, ethics, and other relevant fields. From the U-M Problem-Solving Initiative.

Identifying Victims of Human Trafficking within Health Care Settings:

Course / Elective for graduate and professional students
Interdisciplinary problem-solving course in which health science students develop innovations to increase the identification of victims of human trafficking in healthcare settings. From the U-M Problem-Solving Initiative.

IPE in Action

The IPE in Action foundational experience was held in 2018 and 2019.

Motivational Interviewing

Event / Optional
Professional-level students from the U-M health science schools with a basic level of knowledge about MI focus on communication with patients, families, communities, and professionals, to support a team approach for the promotion and maintenance of health and the prevention and treatment of disease.

Introduction to Clinical Trials

Course / Elective
This 2-credit class was a pilot IPE offering in Winter 2017; students designed their own clinical trial by being part of a TO-T3 translational research team. Topics covered include trial design, ethical issues, managing the study team, study conduct, IRB and regulatory practice, protecting and respecting participants, managing data and data safety, and communicating findings. Listed as Pharmacy 647.

Ethical Dilemmas in Health for Social Work and Other Health Professions

Course / Elective 
From protecting human rights in biomedical research, to equity of health care services, to impact of new technologies, this graduate-level course approaches bioethics in relation to healthcare decisions and quality of life. Offered in Fall as SW705. Learn more.

BioPreparedness Exercise

Experiential Course / Elective
Mass emergency-preparedness exercise hosted by the U-M School of Public Health, in collaboration with other U-M health science schools, the Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education, Washtenaw County Public Health, and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Learn more.

Hamilton Clinical Experience:

Experiential Course / Elective
Community-based interprofessional  rotation to gain understanding of the clinical experience through collaborative patient care.

Service-Learning for Health Professionals:

Course
On issues of health disparities, poverty, and the medically underserved.

Interprofessional Clinical Experience (ICE)

Experiential Opportunity /  MD and DDS
Placed medical students into clinical experience early in their career, to introduce them to the patient, health care team, and health care system.