2018 Interprofessional Education Day

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April 19, 2018 – The 5th Annual GUMC Interprofessional Education Day (IPE) was held at Georgetown University on Thursday, April 19, 2018, from 8:00 am – 2:30 pm in the Leavey Center. This year’s event included over 300 medical, nursing, and health administration students from Georgetown University and pharmacy students from Howard University. The purpose of this event was to improve knowledge and attitudes about roles of healthcare professionals and the benefits of interdisciplinary care, as well as potential communication issues involved with patient care.

The day was filled with interactive small group activities to promote communication among health professions students as well as experience interacting with students from the different disciplines. Dr. Deborah Trautman, the current President of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, joined as keynote speaker to discuss the national dialogue on interprofessional education and practice. The experience overall allowed students to come together to understand the important roles of one another, bridge professional divides, and gain essential skills on how to work with these other roles to be successful in healthcare careers.

One of these events was “It Takes A Village”. The simulation was a case study that demonstrated the importance of collaboration within all types of healthcare specialties to come together and provide the best patient care. In addition, there were opportunities for the students to each discuss their roles in the healthcare process with one another to reflect and gain insight as to how each of their roles intertwines in the real world. They addressed implicit biases with each role to open communication and reconcile these often inaccurate assumptions. Our 3rd-year medical students had a wonderful time attending this event and networking with other health professionals. Asahana Dhruva (M3) mentioned, “This is a great opportunity to interact with our future colleagues across health professions” and Malcom Magovern (M3) mentioned, “This is a great chance to work on developing our skills and interdisciplinary communication to better facilitate patient care!”.