Interprofessional Curriculum Alignment at an Academic Health Center

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) is a comprehensive academic health center with 29 participating

programs located across three campuses. The Interprofessional Educators and Practitioners Association (IEPA) Curriculum

Committee faced numerous challenges to create distinctive interprofessional programming that engages as many student participants

as possible without burdening academic programs. With guidance from our Academic Affairs Policy Committee, participants from

our Academic Strategic Plan project team, IEPA Faculty, and Program Directors across OUHSC embarked on a strategic alignment

process. Using best practices from the literature, administrators from the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs led monthly meetings

bringing together over thirty faculty involved with program curricular development. These semester-long networking opportunities

permitted campus curricular leaders to develop relationships and increase their awareness of shared curricular elements across the

programs During initial brainstorming sessions, the team debated between creating new interprofessional education (IPE) content or

aligning our IPE curricular offerings with existing, hands-on activities already available in specific content areas. The group chose the

latter approach to minimize ramp-up time and facilitate early adoption. Five key content themes emerged: crucial conversations,

difficult conversations, team ethics, pain management, and IPE patient simulations. Content in these areas already existed in every

program in broad formats that could be easily modified to engage any blend of professional students. Next, moderated sessions

focused on building consensus among stakeholders toward the goal of selecting specific programmatic content in these five areas for

expansion into flexible IPE experiences. This approach developed learning opportunities that still met specific programmatic contact

needs but could be quickly adapted to create IPE learning experiences for multiple programs. We created adjustable templates that

could work for any number or combinations of disciplines. Collaboration resulted in an efficiently designed interprofessional, rather

than silo-based, delivery model of relevant learning content applicable to all OUHSC students. Successful outcomes include increased

availability of curricular IPE modules for use by any program and purposeful reinforcement of campus-wide interprofessional culture.

Although COVID-19 challenged our plans for project implementation, the team has revised the methodology and is now prepared for

virtual content delivery. Our IPE program development model follows initial innovation with purposeful expansion by facilitating

early adoption of IPE methods to deliver core content relevant to several disciplines. IPE includes discipline-based and

interprofessional mentored teaching and learning. This approach enables synergy between identifying discipline specific roles and

responsibilities while facilitating understanding and practice of interprofessional communication and shared values.