Virtual IPE simulations
During the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty created several interprofessional clinical simulations that leveraged gaming technology, virtual escape rooms, and 360-degree virtual environments.
Interprofessional Education
At USAHS, we’re developing healthcare practitioners who are skilled at communicating and collaborating harmoniously with team members from other disciplines. To that end, we have embraced interprofessional education (IPE) and have integrated IPE coursework and clinical simulation activities across our programs.
What’s the advantage of collaborative healthcare?
Today’s patients often have complex problems that need attention from practitioners across disciplines. A siloed approach to patient care, where each practitioner treats in isolation, can lead to communication failure—a leading cause of serious medical error.The Joint Commission, “Patient Safety”. In contrast, an interprofessional team approach is correlated with higher patient satisfaction ratings and better health outcomes.Scott Reeves et al., “Interprofessional education: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes (update),” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, March 28, 2013.
To transform the culture of healthcare into a more collaborative environment, healthcare education has also needed to transform, moving steadily in recent years toward IPE.Jordan Utley et al., Interprofessional Education and Collaboration: An Evidence-Based Approach to Optimizing Health Care. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2020.
What is interprofessional education?
According to the World Health Organization, interprofessional education is a style of teaching in which “two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.”World Health Organization (WHO), “Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.” Geneva, Switzerland: WHO, 2010.
In our IPE courses and activities, students practice delivering a holistic, collaborative approach to safe healthcare. Our students often remark that the most important thing they learn from their IPE courses is how to speak a common language free of discipline-specific terminologies.Jordan Utley et al., Interprofessional Education and Collaboration: An Evidence-Based Approach to Optimizing Health Care. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2020. IPE promotes mutual understanding and reduces hierarchies.Sabine Homeyer et al., “Effects of IPE for medical and nursing students: enablers, barriers and expectations for optimizing future IP collaboration—a qualitative study.” BMC Nursing, April 10, 2018. It also helps our students prepare to practice in the real world—or expand their skillset as professionals.
How Does IPE Work at USAHS?
IPE is core to our teaching methodology at USAHS. We have incorporated IPE, and we are expanding its reach across all University programs, through the following means:
Curricula
IPE aspects are integrated within each program, whether in didactic coursework, clinical simulations, or clinical immersion sessions (depending on the program). Activities center around four core competencies defined by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC). They are scaffolded so that students’ skills and knowledge build in a logical sequence.
Simulation
Our state-of-the-art clinical simulation centers give students the chance to practice interprofessional teamwork with their peers in other healthcare disciplines. For example, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy students collaborate to treat patients within a simulated real-life professional and physical environment.
Faculty
Among the USAHS faculty are several champions who are passionate about IPE and who have spearheaded its success within the University. Our faculty are in the exciting position to influence the future of healthcare through the IPE activities they create. And they have made USAHS a thought leader within the space of interprofessional learning through simulation.
See more innovations
Discover the leading edge USAHS provides to your development.
EdTech Tools
Our leading-edge EdTech tools include 3D printers, anatomage tables, rehabilitation/exercise machines, driving simulators, robotics, and more.
Clinical Simulation Labs
In our state-of-the-art simulation laboratories, you’ll practice patient interactions in simulated hospital and home environments, using real clinical and adaptive equipment.
Modern Learning Spaces
Our classrooms and study spaces are designed to optimize collaboration. Our wet and dry anatomy labs feature innovative digital and analog learning tools.
Dynamic Blended Learning
Blended learning merges digitally delivered coursework together with immersive on-campus experiences and clinical fieldwork.
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