Interprofessional Education Thread in the College of Medicine Legacy Curriculum: Overview

Nicole Ammon, M.S.Ed., LPCC-S
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Manager of Community-Based and Interprofessional Education (IPE) in the College of Medicine
– office B-238-A (above Wasson Center); office phone 330-325-6613.  Generally open-door policy, with scheduled appointments by request.  Calendar is up-to-date and publicly viewable via Outlook.

Heather McEwen, MLIS, MS

Interprofessional teamwork and leadership is a longitudinal thread that runs through the College of Medicine curriculum.  Content covers the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for successful collaboration practice in healthcare.

Interprofessional education (IPE) is the process by which individuals from two or more health professions learn with, from, and about each other across the spectrum of their education to improve collaboration, practice, and the quality of healthcare. Northeast Ohio Medical University has placed interprofessional education at the heart of its values: “To be the premier community-based interprofessional health sciences university in the United States.”  Interprofessional education opportunities within the College of Medicine curriculum are developed in coordination with the College of Pharmacy and other health care professional schools.

This guide is focused on illustrating where interprofessional teamwork and leadership content is found in the curriculum and provides resources and educational support to some class sessions and assessments.

The Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has identified Interprofessional Collaboration as a core competency for health professions education.  Competency in this domain states that by graduation, students will be able to demonstrate the ability to engage in an interprofessional team in a manner that optimizes safe, effective patient- and population-centered care. 

• Interprofessional Collaboration / Interprofessional Collaborative Practice:  When multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, caregivers, and communities to deliver the highest quality of care (WHO, 2010)
• Team:  Two or more individuals brought together by an organization who are working or interacting (face-to-face or virtually) on one or more institutionally important common goals or tasks and are assigned different roles and responsibilities while embedded in an encompassing organizational system with linkages to the broader system or task environment
• Interprofessional Team-Based Care: Care delivered by intentionally created, usually relatively small work groups in health care who are recognized by others as well as by themselves as having a collective identity and shared responsibility for a patient or group of patients (e.g., rapid response team, palliative care team, primary care team, and operating room team) (IPEC, 2016)
• Interprofessional Teamwork: The levels of cooperation, coordination and collaboration characterizing the relationships between professions in delivering patient-centered care (IPEC, 2016)
• Interprofessional education:  When students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes (WHO, 2010)

World Health Organization (2010). Framework for action on interprofessional education & collaborative practice. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2010/WHO_HRH_HPN_10.3_eng.pdf.

Interprofessional Education Collaborative (2016). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: 2016 update. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from https://nebula.wsimg.com/2f68a39520b03336b41038c370497473?AccessKeyId= DC06780E69ED19E2B3A5&disposition=0&alloworigin=1.