School of Medicine

The Pulse

IPECP Update 

The Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) office has had many success stories this past quarter.

Fourth-year medical students Mallory Meyers, Shivani Jain, and Margaret Mena received the Interprofessional Scholar designation. 
  
There will be widespread representation at the upcoming Nexus Summit. Medical students Shivani Jain, Allison Willard, Jacob Cambre, Sara Moran Birdsall, William Mitchell Melito, Erin Boudoin and Whitney Sternfels, along with nursing student Rebekah Serrett and dental student Logan Johnson, had their abstract "Evaluation of A Statewide IPE Experience to Mitigate Vaping Misinformation" accepted for presentation at the Nexus Summit program.

The abstract "Enhancing Interprofessional Engagement Within a Student-Led Extracurricular Project: Successes and Challenges," authored by students Sarah Aleman, LaMiah Hall, Thomas Tran, Logan Gold, and Emma Cole was also accepted for inclusion in the Nexus Summit program.

Medical students Hanna Almoaswes and Jared Robinson, along with Dr. Tina Gunaldo and nursing faculty Colette Baudoin will present the lightning talk “Why reinvent the wheel? Blueprints for a virtual summer interprofessional program for pre-health learners.”

First year psychiatry resident Brock Williams is leading the workshop “Building an IP Scholars Program at Your Institution," along with Drs. Gunaldo and Allison Augustus-Wallace, nursing student Sarah Cohen, and dental student Dana Karkoutli.

IPECP Director Dr. Tina Gunaldo said it is important to have students interested in interprofessional scholarship and research. “My goal is that these types of opportunities strengthen and build their interprofessional perspective and outlook, and that they continue to build and integrate these skills as they move forward with their careers as health professionals,” she said.

The four-week, virtual Building Health Teams program continues to grow. The team-based program works to educate high school and college pre-health learners about the training and roles of various health professions, while exposing them to best practices in teamwork. This year, the office reached out to students to determine interest in building leadership skills through the program. Under the direction of Dr. Gunaldo, students Hanna Almoaswes and Jared Robinson co-led the implementation of the 2023 program. Other members of the student team include:

  • Manager of High School Outreach: Eleanor Koonce, William Melito
  • Manager of College Outreach: Cayley LeBlanc, Kyla Maupin
  • Manager of Speakers: Ardenne Martin, Hanna Ott
  • Manager of Interviewees: Logan Robert
  • Application Committee: Hannah Malinosky, Ashley Clement
  • Team Facilitators: Aliyah Pierre, Daniel Edmund, Nathan Pearl, Eleanor Koonce

Michael Dicharry, as a member of an eight-author team including Gunaldo, T., Allen, H., Baudoin, C., Dicharry, M., Held, D., Mazumder, M., Straif-Bourgeois, S., and Edwards, S., authored the conference oral presentation "Let's Talk: Evaluating team development in a longitudinal IPE experience" at Collaborating Across Borders VIII – a North American interprofessional conference.

Many faculty have committed to serve TEAM UP Compassion, Communication, Collaboration® as faculty graders. Dr. Gunaldo said she is grateful for their commitment. TEAM UP Compassion, Communication, Collaboration® is the two-year longitudinal education experience integrated in the curriculum of all six Health Sciences Center Schools for first- and second-year students. Students develop their communication and collaborative skills, enhance their knowledge about professional roles and training, and apply collaborative skills through case-based learning. Approximately 1,500 students submit various reflection assignments about their interprofessional learning and complete an annual project. Faculty graders assist with scoring these reflection assignments and projects, taking on a time commitment of approximately 7.5-13 hours for the academic year or 1-2 hours per month from August to April.