A Model for Success: Advancing Interprofessional Education in Health Professions

In this episode of NLN Nursing EDge Unscripted, the conversation centers on the impact of interprofessional education (IPE) in preparing health professions students for collaborative, team-based care. Guests Katie Branch and Ashley Parikh share how the University of Texas Medical Branch has developed a robust, structured IPE program that includes a seven-activity core curriculum required across five schools. Students complete a selection of interactive learning experiences prior to graduation, with additional opportunities such as an annual symposium and a scholars program that extend learning beyond the core requirements. The discussion clarifies what interprofessional education is—and what it is not—emphasizing intentional collaboration, role clarity, communication, and shared accountability for patient outcomes. Throughout the episode, the guests highlight how thoughtfully designed IPE strengthens patient safety, improves quality of care, and fosters a culture of collaboration across disciplines.

Learn more about the University of Texas Medical Branch Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice: https://www.utmb.edu/ipep

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the leading organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. Find past episodes of the NLN Nursing EDge podcast online. Get instant updates by following the NLN on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube. For more information, visit NLN.org.

Transcript

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Welcome to another episode of the NLN podcast, Nursing EDge Unscripted. I am the host of today's episode, Dr. Kellie Bryant, and I'm here with my co-host, Dr. Raquel Bertiz, and we're both from the National League for Nursing. In today's episode, which I'm very excited about, we will discuss how interprofessional education programs prepare health professional students for team-based care, strengthens patient safety, and improves care through collaboration. And we're going to be highlighting a exemplar program, a IPE program at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Before we dive into the full conversation, let's share some of our reflections right after the taping. Oh, so Raquel, that was a very informative podcast. I listened to them and all I could think of is where was this when I was in nursing school? I wish more opportunities for interprofessional education. Yeah. I think about my early experiences as a new nurse and having to learn how to relate with all other professionals in the healthcare field and not have had any education on that like literally. So then I had to learn on my own. So hearing about this program where they actually have required courses in order for them to graduate, that was amazing for me because then it's structured. I mean structured in a sense that it's not oh I can do it or oh I don't have to do it but really learners would have to do all of their IP activities or their programs. Yeah. But but that just stresses that the university takes IP serious seriously. You know it's not an elective, not optional because it's so important and really is needed if you're going into the health care profession. Everybody should you know having be having these opportunities to learn from about and with other health care professionals that makes the health care that we deliver to our patients much better when we can understand everybody's roles. So the fact that the university you know made that stance and said this is a requirement you know is is amazing in itself and I think you know a lot of times students may you know initially participate because it's required but then they get a taste of IP and as Ashley and Katie said then they fall in love with it and they want more of it because they see the value in it. Right. Let's turn from our reflections to the experts driving this important conversation. I am so honored to have our guests here today. We have Dr. Katie Branch who is the Vice President of Interprofessional Education and the Health Education Center and we also are joined by Dr. Ashley Parikh who is the Director of the Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice and Quality Enhancement Plan. So I want to first thank you both Katie and Ashley for joining us here today. Well thank you so much for having us Dr. Bryant. This is a wonderful opportunity for us and we're thrilled to be here. Oh, it's wonderful. And I have to just start off by saying I personally had an opportunity to visit your wonderful simulation center interprofessional center. So, I was just really impressed by your program. So, I'm really excited to share the wonderful things that you're doing at UTMB with the rest of our audience. So, let's start off with just just tell us a little bit about your your program. what makes it unique? Yeah, sure. Thank you so much, Dr. Bryant. So, our program here is a very well established and it's becoming a robust program at UTMB. We have a core curriculum of seven activities which are about 2 hours each and students from all the five schools here at UTMB. Medicine, Nursing, Public and Population Health, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Health Professions. They all are required to complete four out of the seven prior to graduation. That's a great program. I know I want to say, you know, Ashley and her team does a phenomenal job and that's just one aspect of the work that they're doing. So, we have our core curriculum and the students do have some flexibility in choosing what meets their interest and what they complete prior to graduation. But on top of those activities, Ashley's team is always doing supplemental things. So, we have an annual IP symposium that is open to anybody at UTMB. It's a great opportunity for faculty, but also students to present their scholarly work in IP. And we make it free. So everybody can attend here in person. And then we also have a scholars program that Ashley runs and it's open to any students that are interested in kind of going beyond the just the core curriculum. And the scholars do have a scholarly project that they have to do as part of that. And then as part of our ongoing quality improvement, Ashley and her team are always piloting new activities. So there's always a wealth of things going on for students to engage in. So I hear a lot of very interesting things you're doing and this curriculum sounds wonderful but I'm also curious. So how do you define interprofessional education in plain language and what is it not? Do you want to take that one Ashley? Yeah I would love to and that's a great question Raquel. I'm glad you asked that. It's a very common question. I would say IP the goal is to improve patient care outcomes and also safety outcomes. It's really when two or more different professions are learning about each other's roles and responsibilities. So a lot of communication has to occur there as they educate each other about what they do and how they can contribute to the overall goal and the team. What IP is not is when team members of the same profession are working together. So really, as I mentioned before, IP has to have at least two different professions. And I'm glad you clarified that because some people think they're doing IP and they're not. They think if you just take a group of students from different professions and put them in a room together, that's IP. But I remember hearing and I'll never forget it. It's about learning from each other, with each other, and about each other. I always keep that in mind when I think about IP. You know, one of the things that I love to see when our students come in at any given time, we have about 3,000 students that are in the process of completing the core curriculum. And when they come to the IP events, there's this level of excitement that you see in our learners. And I think part of it is exactly that, is it their opportunity to not only share their scope of practice for their profession, but it's also their opportunity learn about the scope of practice of other healthcare professionals that they know they're going to be working with in the clinical realm. That isn't always included because our curriculums are so packed for our academic disciplines. But this is you know an open opportunity for them to learn about other disciplines in you know in a safe environment that isn't tied to a grade for a course which is it's fun to it's fun to see. It really is. So like I said I had the pleasure of visiting your campus and hearing more about some of your programs and they were very interesting. So can you tell us a little bit more about some of them? I remember there's one that was called and I don't want to say BaFa BaFa. Is that how you pronounce it? Okay. Engage me. What's wrong with Warren? So, can you tell us a little bit about some of those very innovative and creative activities that students have a choice of taking or participating? Yes. No, you said it correctly. So it's Yeah, it sounds funny, but BaFa BaFa is actually one of our most popular ones. It's an immersive mock cultural simulation activity and it's all done in person and BaFa is the language one of the mock languages there that we speak and so and we also have "What's Wrong with Warren?," which is a large-scale case study it follows a patient with meningitis throughout his their IP journey of on a being cared for by an IPE team. And then engage me is where students get they another popular one they love to they get a chance to interact with the patients or the caregiver on various health topics. So they really enjoy asking questions, learning more about you know yes the clinical aspect is great with the panelists that are there but then you know learning about the things they don't get to always learn from a textbook or a PowerPoint, you know, how do the patients and the families deal with this after discharge? Especially if it's a chronic disease, what other resources are there? So those are the three that are really our main ones. And then we of course team steps is our foundational one. Disaster day is our mass casualty incident there. Collaboration of the Galveston community partners as well as the UTMB students and healthcare providers. Our bench to bedside, it's where students get to design scientific experiments on a specific disease and IP teams to improve patient outcomes. And then we have the extension of engage me which I Katie if you want to talk a little bit more about our GTX-GEMS. Yeah. So, we're just in we just finished our first year of our greater Texas Gulf Coast Engage Me series, which is what we do call GTX-GEMS for short. And it was building on that engage me experience where with Engage Me, like Ashley said, the students actually interact with patients and their caregivers on a specific disease step. What we do with GTX-GEMS is we bring it to a larger audience. So we bring in an expert from the state to talk about what's happening at the governmental level either legislation or funding. We bring in somebody from the region to talk about how that funding is being utilized. And then we also take it as an opportunity to engage students with what's happening here on campus from a clinical or research perspective on that same topic. And those events run monthly for our students and they're open to a larger audience. So, it's not just students, but we open it up to faculty, clinical practitioners throughout the healthcare system here. And then we also open it up to community members. And I think that's one thing that is really vital to IP that, you know, we don't work in a vacuum, but it's not only the health care practitioners that we work with, it's our patients, it's their caregivers and family, but there's a community involvement also a lot of times in the work that we're trying to do for the good of our patients. That's a great point because most of us think it's just for the learners or the students enrolled in that university. So, it's great that you open it up to the community and people outside of the university. Yeah. Great. It's really wonderful to hear all of the significant events that's happening in your program and we all know that this is important as we train the future health professionals. So I'm curious too how do you measure impact like what tools and other measurement are important to you? Yes, I mean I can start with this one and maybe then Ashley can build on it also. But the research side and the data collection for us is super exciting. I think that's where we see opportunity for improvement and innovation. And so we're constantly collecting data on our existing core curriculum. We have, we utilize a modified CASS tool for all of our events. So we're measuring pre and post all of our core activities. And then we do the same for all of our pilot activities. So we like to keep things fresh. You know, one of our activities is "What's Wrong with Warren?" If you do this over and over, it doesn't take very long for one student to talk to another student and the students come in and they already know what's wrong with Warren and have, you know, that element of surprise or coming up with ideas on your own can be eliminated. So, we're always looking for ways to keep things new. Look for innovative ideas. And so anytime we have any activities that are suggested by students, suggested by faculty, suggested by our IP team, we really do try and make them come to fruition. And then once we have those implemented, we're measuring them. And the way that our IP team is guided is we have an advisory committee and we meet regularly and we present this data to the advisory committee. So, we had an IP pilot activity on psychological safety. I'm not going to have the name of it exactly right, but Ashley can tell you about that, that we actually piloted earlier this year, but we're collecting data on that to see if it's something that is well-received by learners and something that we would want to implement in the future. But I'm sure Ashley can build on further. Sure. Thank you. Yeah, it was called the building trust exercise. It was one of our liaisons actually who's they're big IP champions from the graduate school of biomedical sciences and you know they learned a lot about IP and in all the different settings and they realized psychological safety is is the core is a very important aspect to have in an IP team regardless of any setting. So yes the pilot was led by students under the faculty supervision and it they were very engaged students from all over from different programs and schools at UTMB came together and talked about what is psychological safety how do we incorporate that with IP to improve in patient safety and outcomes and it was very successful the conversations were are the most favorite things that students love. And from our post- survey assessments especially, you know, they say what you know that one thing they enjoyed the most was being able to when we force them to sit with students from different programs and just communicate about each other's roles and responsibilities. So now we make sure we force them to continue to do that or encourage them to do that I should say at the beginning of each of our activities. So the data really has been helpful. We know that Oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, no, okay. I was just going to say we know the students love IP. They love to get together with other students from different disciplines and learn from each other. I'm sure that you found that on your evaluations and they tend to want more of these type of activities. They don't know how much planning and resources go behind it. Hey Katie, I didn't mean to shut to cut you off. No, I was just going to say one of the aspects that I think has made our IP core curriculum so successful here is that we have buy in from senior leadership and this data that Ashley and her team are collecting on a regular basis helps inform the work we do towards IP and the institution has decided the last two cycles for our institutional accreditation our quality enhancement plan focus has been on IPE. So our data all goes to meet those quality expectations as part of our quality enhancement plan across the entire institution. So we value it, but not only do we know the value of it, our senior leadership knows the value of it in terms of what we're trying to do in our mission at the institution. So the data is well utilized and it and it helps a lot when you have your senior leadership that believes these programs and supports these programs. So we we know it's great it's wonderful you know you have the metrics. Now let's switch gears and talk about the challenges because there are so many you know educators that would love to take on an IP program but they face so many barriers and obstacles. So, what do you find are the biggest challenges with implementing a program such as the one that you have? Because you always hear schedule, schedule, scheduling. I'm guessing that's probably the top barrier. Go ahead, Ashley. I know you can speak to this one. Yes. And scheduling is one of our biggest challenges. I will say when the program did start there were there were the programs all the five schools decided that there was this one week in every month like the third week where all the activities all IP activities could be scheduled and so it was a lot for staff to schedule as you said so much that my my team goes does behind the scenes. And so then COVID hit. Well, there were with COVID a lot of programs went online or hybrid and new programs came about as well. So I will say that we listen to the data and evaluations and we decided to have at least now one to two activities a week in the mornings, afternoons and they really appreciated that. So it's worked out well. Yeah, it's interesting to hear all of these challenges that we have to navigate even if we all know how important IP is and should be not only in nursing education but all of health professions. So if for example if we're helping our health professions community try to advocate for inclusion of IPs as a foundational competency right so what would that one strong argument do you think that we should be using to say hey IP is foundational competency needs to be included in the curriculum. You know, for this one, what I would say is we're stronger together as a team, not only in healthcare, but in IP. There is no reason that one school or academic program needs to do this alone. Reach out, find your champions across the institution, and together, collectively, you will move that mission forward so much faster and stronger than if it's one school, one faculty, one, you know, one department at a time. So use your resources, networking and teamwork which embodies the very collaboration that IP should have. Exactly. Exactly. And do you have any as we're running out of time because this we can talk about this for hours and hours. For someone who's just starting out, you know, you gave a great tip, but are there other resources that you would refer people to if they're interested in implementing an effective IP program? where should they go? Go ahead, Ashley. I can start off and you know, really say the biggest thing, you know, when I came into this role was collaboration. Really finding a network of IP champions and really trying to have the conversations. I met face to face with a lot of them and it took a little time but I really had to put myself out there and let them know that hey you know we can I think we do have some shared values and let's see how it can align with your goals your program and UTMB's vision. So yeah, just having those conversations about collaboration first off really helps. Say to build on that, look at your local, your regional, your state, and your national organizations like the National League for Nursing and the international, national interprofessional education organizations. There's a ton of resources out there that you don't have to start from scratch. Build on what other people have already set the building blocks for. You know, the only other thing that I can think of that would help institutions that are just starting off or are trying to make the work that they do in in IP have an impact is the difference that I see here at UTMB compared to other some other institutions is that UTMB has made the core IP curriculum a requirement. You know, like we mentioned, all the work that goes behind organizing and scheduling and getting things to be just right. Nothing is more defeating is when nobody shows up and you have one or two people. So, our events that we hold, I mean, there are some are what's wrong with Warren Buffa buff. We'll see up towards 200 people show up per event because they are required and it isn't a big lift for students here. It's, you know, as Ashley mentioned, two, two and a half hours per activity and they have the whole course of their academic curriculum to finish that work. So 2 and 1/2 hours per semester isn't a lot to ask, but then it does show value to the students that we do value this as an institution and then it does pay off in the long run. We do all this work knowing we're going to have a large volume of actual learners show up to participate. Yeah. And I think it's just beneficial. Yes, it's two and a half hours a semester, but think of what they learn and the opportunity to work with others outside of their profession because we all go to school in silos, whether you're a nurse, a dentist, physician, OT, PT, and then we're expected to work together in the clinical setting. And then they wonder why, you know, sometimes we struggle with communication and collaboration because we've been apart and we don't know what each other, you know, does. So, we are unfortunately out of time. So, I want to thank you both, Katie and Ashley, for joining us for this episode of the Nursing EDge Unscripted, brought to you by the National League for Nursing. So, a special thank you again. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule and sharing the wonderful work that you're doing at UTMB. Feel free to reach out to us also. you know, Ashley, her team, our organization, if we don't have the answer, we have a large network and we're willing to collaborate, work together on either if it's implementing a IP program or if there's opportunities to collaborate on IP events or even research and innovation, we would be happy to do that. Yes, thank you for offering that. So, we appreciate your support and look forward to those of you in the audience joining us for our next episode. Thank you. Thank you for having us. It was a pleasure to be here today. Yes. And thank you so much.