Team Effort
Interprofessional education (IPE) leads to higher functioning health care teams and breaks down the traditional silos of health care learning.
With this foundation of collaboration earlier in your training, you will be better prepared to function effectively in any team.
The Michigan curriculum integrates IPE in all four years. In the first year, these encounters take place within IPE sessions with a variety of health professionals throughout Michigan Medicine, as well as the Shadowing InterProfessional Sessions (SIPS) experiences. You will learn from health care professionals in both inpatient and outpatient settings to better understand their roles. These include child life specialists, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physician assistants, physical therapists, social workers and many others.
Interprofessional student experiences are continuously expanding. The University of Michigan Medical School has an enthusiastic team that develops interprofessional experiences. We collaborate closely with student representatives to respond to feedback and optimize experiences based on student input. Below includes a non-exhaustive list of some of the interprofessional learning opportunities for UMMS students.
As a geriatrician, I've long understood the value of interprofessional care. Incorporating a team of specialized clinicians allows us to provide the best possible care for our patients across every clinical setting, from home care to the clinic to the hospital and beyond. But interprofessional education doesn't only create value for patients. By understanding the roles of our various colleagues and realizing we are not solely responsible for the plan of care, we can lighten each other’s load while delivering better care. Excellent patient care takes a village; interprofessional education helps us get there!”
The Introduction to IPE Module introduces students to the current healthcare landscape through the perspectives of patients and families, as well as faculty. It provides an overview of the history of interprofessional education and how it relates to the quadruple aim of health care: improved patient experience, improved population health, increased workforce satisfaction and reduced cost of health care. The content is appropriate for students across the health science schools and is ideal for learners early in their programs. This module is a program requirement for a majority of the U-M health sciences and is produced by the Center for Interprofessional Education.
Our interdisciplinary faculty have developed a number of didactic experiences to best prepare medical students for the clinical setting, as well as reinforcing clinical experience. Didactic experiences include a deconstruction of interdisciplinary rounds, exploration of post-acute and long term care facilities, goals of care discussion, interdisciplinary care in the emergency room, and more. Sessions are typically co-facilitated by physician faculty and relevant healthcare professionals, such as social workers, nurses, respiratory therapists, and more.
A longitudinal shadowing program for first year medical students. Learn more here.
HIPE is an interdisciplinary learning series involving a set of hands-on sessions that integrates various health care disciplines into the Medical School curriculum. These sessions are designed to provide medical students with a holistic understanding of patient care by collaborating with a diverse group of health professionals. By fostering a collaborative learning environment, this series aims to prepare future physicians to work effectively within interdisciplinary healthcare teams.
This is a free clinic located in Pinckney, Michigan that provides primary care services to around 500 uninsured and underinsured adults in Livingston County each year. The clinic began as a medical student co-curricular and has expanded to include nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and public health students.
LIFE connects teams of interprofessional students 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. LIFE is designed to meet the advancing needs of the U-M health science schools. LIFE is an optional elective for medical students and is produced by the Center for Interprofessional Education.
Third-year medical students and second-year pharmacy students participate together in a 1.5-hour bootcamp on geriatric prescribing. This session is co-led by physician and pharmacist faculty members and allows students to learn from and alongside one another, with an emphasis on medication safety and performing a thorough and patient-centered medical reconciliation.
During their clinical years, medical students have multiple opportunities to interact directly with a variety of practicing professionals. Students will learn the roles and responsibilities of various health professionals and how to collaborate with each to promote the best possible patient outcomes.
Family Medicine
Students will be assigned an interprofessional discipline, such as a medical assistant, nurse, pharmacist, or social worker, to further learn their roles within the clinic setting. At the conclusion of the course, students come together to share their experiences and learn about other professions from their classmates. This experience has been highly rated, and allows students to better optimize their own clinical workflow, by understanding how to leverage and collaborate with their non-physician colleagues.
Internal Medicine
Care coordinators are invaluable members of the care team, that coordinate many elements of discharge planning, including transportation, admission to post-acute care facilities, obtaining durable medical equipment, arranging home care, and more. During their internal medicine clerkship, students are required to observe a care coordinator for an afternoon and reflect on this experience.
Psychiatry
During the Psychiatry clerkship on the inpatient psychiatry ward, medical students observe how mental health care is delivered in interprofessional teams. Each discipline lends their expertise in treatment of the whole patient. Nurses, social workers, activity therapists (OT/PT/recreation), music therapists and pharmacists work side-by-side with the psychiatrists and medical students to develop a plan of care that promotes patient entry back into the community.
Emergency Medicine Clerkship
Students are expected to identify the different critical roles played by allied health personnel in the Emergency Department and how these individuals interact to provide cohesive patient care by working half of a shift with nurses and technicians directly. At the Michigan Medicine site, students have the option of splitting the shift with social work.
Geriatric Medicine – Team-Based Approach
This session provides training in geriatrics within the context of interprofessional, team-based care to medicine and pharmacy students. Learners work through a case that will require a team-based approach in determining the plan, differentials, and disposition. In addition to increasing knowledge of geriatric medicine, students will learn to strengthen skills within interprofessional team-based care, including greater awareness of roles and responsibilities, communication skills and shared decision making.
Residency Preparation Courses
Students participate in a simulated paging curriculum in Residency Preparation courses and are “on call” to receive pages about mock patients consisting of both urgent inpatient scenarios and routine outpatient scenarios. Trained registered nurses administer the cases and act as the nurse taking care of the mock patients.
The Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education focuses on creating new ways for health care students to learn together. Students give their input through IPE town halls, organizations, competitions and events.
