UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences
photo by Wanda Weber
Team Work
New Interprofessional Health Care Course
ensures future health care and human
service professionals work as a team
The new Interprofessional Health Care Course at UND will ensure that future health care and human service professionals can better work as a team to provide high quality and consistant care to patients. The new course involves students from the full spectrum of health care: medicine, nursing, physical therapy, social work, communication sciences and disorders, dietetics, occupational therapy, clinical lab science and the physician assistant program.
In response to a national movement, UND began development of a interprofessional course two years ago. The first group of just over 80 students to enroll in the new course met for the first time January 10.
"This course shows UND's commitment to producing quality graduates for our workforce," said UND President Charles Kupchella. "The people who worked together as a team to develop this course across departmental boundaries have shown their commitment to a unified goal to enhance the professional skills of future health care and human service professionals."
Leading a national movement
In 2001, the national Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report which argued that to improve the quality of medical care provided in this country, doctors and other health care professionals need to be taught to work in interdisciplinary teams. According to the IOM, members of the health care team must learn approaches to deliver the best possible care to patients through collaborative work, ensure that timely information reaches those who need it, and manage patient transitions across settings and over time, even when team members are in different locations.
“While many other academic settings are still thinking about it, UND is doing it. And I will wager that the patient care, provided by the next generation of clinicians who are in this room today, will be far better
for it."
Mary Wakefield, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Rural Health |
In response to the IOM report, Dean H. David Wilson, M.D., convened a task force, comprised of deans, departmental chairs, and directors of several health and human service-related education programs on campus.
"Generally speaking, the complexity of 21st century medicine works in favor of the patient," said Mary Wakefield, Ph.D., associate dean for rural health, who chaired the task force. "But when health care providers don't communicate and are unaware of the others’ scope of practice, this complexity can hurt patients."
"It was once, but isn't any more, enough to train health care professionals in silos and expect that the day they graduate they will, by osmosis, be able to work in complex environments with people whose education and focus complements but is very different from their own," said Wakefield.
Understanding the roles of other health professionals
For this course, students are separated into groups of about seven, representing a variety of health and human service education programs at UND. Faculty members in each of the disciplines also serve as facilitators for each group.
The students will meet in their groups once a week for six weeks to work on patient case studies. There are no textbooks for the class. The case unfolds as the team works together to apply knowledge and perspectives of each health profession, apply group skills in case management approaches and demonstrate a patient/client-centered approach in decision-making as an interdisciplinary team.
Rick Vari, Ph.D., associate dean for medical education, who led the team that developed the course, is pleased with the progress that's been made.
"All the faculty facilitators are really excited about what they see in their groups," he said. "Everyone has been very respectful of each others' professions, but one thing that has already come out is that we really don't know what other professions bring to the table."
"With all the various professions that are caring for a single person, it is nice to know what each one is doing," agreed Emily Hansen, a physical therapy student. "Knowing what everyone is doing will help to provide the most optimal care for the patient."
"Discussing these issues in an interdisciplinary group is so much better than giving lectures on each profession," Vari continued. "The goal is being achieved. Students will gain a really good appreciation of each profession."
Involving more students online
The school plans to develop the course into an online format for the fall 2006 semester. The online version of the course will be used in programs that do much of their teaching through distance education. The physician assistant, clinical lab science, dietetics and occupational therapy programs will have students participating through the online course in the future.
“While many other academic settings are still thinking about it," said Wakefield, "UND is doing it. And I will wager that the patient care, provided by the next generation of clinicians who are in this room today, will be far better for it."
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