Graduation Distinction in IPE: A Co-Curricular Program

Abstract

The purpose of this program is to earn graduation distinction in interprofessional healthcare education (IPE) through a structured - voluntary program of experiential learning that integrates the core competencies of interprofessional healthcare (IPEC, 2011) for students across the schools of medicine, nursing, health sciences, and business. The backgroundof this program is based upon the concepts of integrative learning (Bass, 2012), high impact learning practices (Kuh, 2008), and the power of co-curricular education (McNair & Albertine, 2012). Learning experiences outside of the traditional classroom setting provide a natural environment for students to learn with-by-from each other in impactful real-life experiences that are not attached to a grading system of the traditional courses. Instead, students who volunteer these integrated co-curricular programs may have increased motivation to learn and experience working together. Although these concepts have been studied in undergraduate curriculum, the positive results (Bass, 2012; McNair & Albertine, 2012) may provide a good foundation for graduate learning in interprofessional healthcare. Students self-register and complete learning activities focused on the application of the IPEC, 2011, core competencies to solve health-related challenges in community-based environments. Students write self-reflections on each learning activity and receive faculty feedback. The culminating experience where student teams develop an integrated healthcare plan for a patient/family is presented by the actual care team. In order to earn the graduation distinction, the students also complete a post learning assessments and a six month follow up survey about the application of learning in their clinical practice. Preliminary findings will be collected in July 2016 through survey and focus group methodologies on IPE learning secondary to this co-curricular extracurricular program. The session will provide outcome learning data, examples of the attributes of the most effective learning experiences and future considerations for generalizability of the program to other high education institutions. Learning Objectives: The session participant will understand literature that supports learning of the interprofessional healthcare core competencies through co-curricular or extracurricular activities; The session participant will understand the goals and program for students to earn graduation distinction in IPE.