Denise
Bender,
PT, JD, MEd
Program Director for Doctor of Physical Therapy Program
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Denise Bender, JD, PT, M.Ed., is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center and serves as the Doctor of Physical Therapy program director. She holds the Jill Pitman Jones Professorship in Physical Therapy and a David Ross Boyd Professorship. She practices interprofessinally at the OU Physicians Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Clinic._x000D_
Since 2012, Denise serves as core faculty in the campus-wide Interprofessional Educators and Practitioners Association (IEPA). She is immediate past-chair of the IEPA Executive Council and chairs the IEPA Curriculum Committee that is tasked with development and dissemination of programming for fourteen disciplines in seven colleges located across three campuses. She has presented nationally and internationally on interprofessional education and interprofessional practice.
Presenting at the Nexus Summit:
This presentation describes a teaching module created to intentionally engage entry-level occupational and physical therapy students in examining the impact of their beliefs and attitudes on communication with each other and with their future patients. The module addresses the uncomfortable issues of conscious and unconscious bias, the impact of privilege, and communication barriers that can derail teams. This module was added to a course that was already taught by an interprofessional faculty as well as being the first course offered in the curricula for both professional programs. This…
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) is a comprehensive academic health center with 29 participatingprograms located across three campuses. The Interprofessional Educators and Practitioners Association (IEPA) CurriculumCommittee faced numerous challenges to create distinctive interprofessional programming that engages as many student participantsas possible without burdening academic programs. With guidance from our Academic Affairs Policy Committee, participants fromour Academic Strategic Plan project team, IEPA Faculty, and Program Directors across OUHSC embarked on a…
The success of our programming has been tied to the support of our institutional leadership. As a comprehensive academic health center with almost thirty participating programs, reliance on grassroots programming led by IPE champions was not sustainable. It was only with the support of our Chief Academic Officer that our interprofessional programming significantly matured. Improvements seen include establishment of the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs under the Vice Provost, access to funding through the establishment of a mandatory fee, and appointment of staff FTE in addition to faculty…
The purpose of this presentation is to describe a pilot project designed to improve student preparation for working together in the interprofessional clinical environment. When patients and families report that their care seems disorganized, it is often due to inefficiency resulting from an unfamiliarity with what each member can contribute. Often, this apparent inefficiency is really a reflection of the team's lack of familiarity with the scope and depth of each other's professional practice. When professional programs provide silo-based learning experiences, it creates students who have…