Developing, Implementing, and Assessing Impact of Undergrad IPE Based on Collaborative Care Models

Theme: Interprofessional Education and Teamwork

Institution: University of Virginia

Grant Type: Board Grant

Award Amount: $746,684

Grant Awarded: May 2011

Principal Investigator: Leslie Blackhall, MD; Valentina Brashers, MD; Jeanne Erikson, PhD, RN, AOCN; John Owens, EdD, MSc

Grant Description

Both the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia have proposed the implementation of a new educational method called Collaborative Care Best Practice Models. These models would help both schools’ third-year students in their clinical/clerkship year develop essential practices and collaborative behaviors that, in the long run, will help them apply what they learn in real clinical situations.

Collaborative Care Best Practice Models represents the University of Virginia’s ongoing development and implementation of interprofessional education (IPE) into their medical and nursing curricula. These innovations in IPE were partly due to a newly revamped medical curriculum and the arrival of new deans in both the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine, who together helped form the Interprofessional Education Initiative (IPEI). The American Academy of Colleges of Nursing has also stressed the importance of IPE in a recent publication of Essentials of Baccalaureate Education.

With the assistance of a $746,684 grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the UVA Schools of Medicine and Nursing will not only implement IPE into their goals, but will also have the ability to evaluate the “undergraduate IPE experience” based on Collaborative Care Best Practice Models. One of these new IPE experiences is a workshop for third-year nursing and medical students about the difficult discussions that occur in end-of-life care. The university’s Clinical Simulation Learning Center (which has been undergoing a million-dollar renovation) and Clinical Performance Education Center house high-tech clinical laboratories and simulation rooms that will also effectively unite IPE and delivery of care.

With the support of the Macy Foundation, UVA will be able to expand their IPE initiative to its greatest potential and evaluate the effectiveness of its current programs. Grant support will be directed towards the following outcomes:

Creation and evaluation of a system template that can be used for IPE initiatives for undergraduates at other schools

Increase in the number of undergraduate students the system can support

Creation of assessment tools used to evaluate the effectiveness of the IPE initiative for the third-year medical and nursing students

Further opportunities for faculty development, including increased experience with simulation technology