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Close to 200 health care leaders and organizations from across the state attended University of New England’s 2014 Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPCP) Summit, “Developing Interprofessional Collaborative Practice,” on ɫ����Ƶ’s Biddeford Campus May 28-29. Funded by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation and the Maine AHEC Network, the two-day Summit addressed the latest strategies for implementing interprofessional team-based care, as shared by the nation’s leading IPCP experts.

As the largest educator of health care professionals in Maine, ɫ����Ƶ is uniquely positioned to lead IPCP efforts. Its 13 health professional degree programs include extensive campus-based training, and the university has piloted interprofessional clinical rotations in three Maine outpatient sites with underserved populations.

In her Summit remarks, ɫ����Ƶ President Danielle Ripich cited Institute of Medicine reports that “the root cause of about 80 percent of U.S. deaths due to medical errors are due to poor communication, collaboration, and coordination among health care providers– in other words, poor teamwork. These reports urged universities and health care institutions to use the science of teamwork to train health care providers to work together more effectively, and to educate students from different health professions together and how to work together as teams.”

Through interactive sessions over two days, the expert speakers who addressed this teamwork approach included:

• Barbara Brandt, Ph.D., Director of the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education and Associate Vice President for Education, Academic Health Center, University of Minnesota;
• Frederick Chen, MD, MPH, Senior Investigator for University of Washington’s WWAMI Rural Health Research Center and the Center for Health Workforce Studies and Senior Advisor to the Bureau of Health Professions in the Health Resources and Services Administration;
• Stephen C. Shannon, DO, MPH, President of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and Past Dean of the ɫ����Ƶ College of Osteopathic Medicine;
• George E. Thibault, MD, President of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation;
• Danielle Ripich, Ph.D, ɫ����ƵPresident
• Jennifer Morton, DNP, MS, MPH, RN, ɫ����Ƶ Director of Nursing and IPEC Associate Professor
• Susan Kimble, DNP, RN, ANP-BC, Associate Clinical Professor and Program Director of MSN and DNP programs at University of Missouri Kansas City.

The Summit featured an audience viewing of a ɫ����Ƶ-created video entitled “Interprofessional Clinical Rotations.”  ɫ����Ƶ students and faculty, along with clinical partners and leadership from the Augusta Family Medicine Institute (FMI) at Maine General Hospital, explored their journey creating collaborative, team-based rotations.  Students and faculty reflected on their learning, and clinicians and institutional leadership shared perspectives on the favorable impact to patient care and organizational outcomes as a result of this project. 

Barbara Crowley, executive vice president at MaineGeneral Health, explains the purpose of interprofessional clinical rotations in the video: “It’s not just a matter of putting different disciplines in a room or around a case; it’s about that team growing to really understand what each of their roles are and how they can best utilize their time and their technical expertise, and how they can best use that of the other members of the team.”  The video can be viewed at the website.

The Summit also enabled non-profit community-based partners from around the state to work together in teams with ɫ����Ƶ educators to develop institution-specific IPCP models for their clinical education sites. The eight interprofessional teams included:

• Eastern Maine Healthcare System
• Penobscot Community Health Center
• Mercy Hospital
• Lewiston Veterans Administration Community Based Outpatient Clinic
• City of Portland Public Health Division
• MaineGeneral Health
• Portland Community Health Center
• Maine Medical Center/MaineHealth Transition Clinic

ɫ����Ƶ Summit faculty who were involved in the planning and training included Shelley Cohen Konrad PhD, LCSW, Director, Center for Excellence in Interprofessional Education and  Associate Professor, School of Social Work; Dora Anne Mills MD, MPH, FAAP, Vice President for Clinical Affairs; Karen Pardue PhD, RN, CNE, ANEF, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, Associate Professor of Nursing; and Douglas Wood DO, PhD, FACOI, Dean, College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Pardue said, “The Summit provided an outstanding opportunity for ɫ����Ƶ faculty and our clinical partners to work together in proposing new educational designs for team-based rotations.  Collaborative care models align with the ever-changing health care landscape, promoting the triple aim of enhanced patient satisfaction, improved outcomes of care, and lower cost. It is exciting to work with our community partners to transform student education and impact clinical delivery for the patients and families we collectively serve.”

For more information, visit the webpage of ɫ����Ƶ's Interprofessional Education Collaborative.