Language Matters: Defining Co-curricular IPE to Advance Meaningful Practices

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is committed to advancing interprofessional education (IPE). This effort is best demonstrated through our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), Linking Interprofessional Networks for Collaboration (LINC). The QEP involves all schools (dentistry, graduate biomedical sciences, health professions, medicine, and nursing) and is required for institutional accreditation. The primary goals of the QEP include increasing campus-wide IPE knowledge and skills, integration of IPE activities into programs’ curricula, and increasing opportunities for student IPE experiences. To achieve these goals, all schools have committed to implementing recommendations for quality IPE developed by the Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative (HPAC) in concert with the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education.

The integration of extracurricular IPE activities in an intentional manner to augment classroom and clinical IPE learning experiences is featured prominently in the HPAC guidance. A University-wide, interprofessional workgroup of faculty and staff with experience developing IPE for community-based health clinic, service learning, and student life settings was formed to explore this environment, identify meaningful practices, and foster excellence and growth in this area. In response to the diverse, inconsistent, and oftentimes conflicting terminology used to describe extracurricular IPE, the workgroup developed a consensus taxonomy and applied it to complete a scoping review of the published literature. Results of the scoping review were used to identify meaningful practices and inform faculty development efforts.

This lightning talk will describe the development of the shared mental model that facilitated University-wide consensus around the term “co-curricular IPE,” scoping review results, and co-curricular IPE activities identified through an environmental scan that exemplify meaningful practices. This process and consensus taxonomy pave the way for greater University-wide coordination and collaboration, which promises to influence health professions students here and elsewhere.

Disclosures:

In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s Standards for Commercial Support, adopted by the Joint Accreditors for Interprofessional Continuing Education, the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education has a conflict of interest policy that requires that all individuals involved in the development of activity content disclose their relevant financial relationships with commercial interests. All potential conflicts of interest that arise based upon these financial relationships are resolved prior to the educational activity.

Judston Robinson, Elizabeth Brew, Ryan Pasternak, Shelley Ferrin, Neil Horsley, Rachael Stone, Sol De Jesus, Kelly Karpa, Indira Puroshothaman, Tanya Shaw, Joseph Zorek, Moshtagh Farokhi, Jeff Lacy, Sean Garcia, Michael Geelhoed, Le’Keisha Johnson, Janna Lesser, Melanie Stone, Heidi Worabo

declare no vested interest in or affiliation with any commercial interest offering financial support for this interprofessional continuing education activity, or any affiliation with a commercial interest whose philosophy could potentially bias their presentation.