Jessica Barreca, PT, DPT
Community Site Coordinator
Saint Louis University

Jessica Barreca is a physical therapist with almost 20 years of experience working with children in a variety of settings including outpatient, early intervention and the educational system. Jessica currently serves as the Community Site Coordinator in the Center for Interprofessional Education & Research and as an adjunct instructor of Physical Therapy at Saint Louis University. Jessica’s research interests include inclusion of children with disabilities, trauma-informed care, and interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

Presenting at the Nexus Summit:

In St. Louis University’s (SLU’s) Interprofessional (IP) Community practicum course, teams of six undergraduate students from different health professions (e.g., athletic training, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy) collaborate with local non-profit organizations, each of which serves under-resourced communities, over the course of a semester to develop and implement a health or wellness project focused on addressing their community partner’s goals. Class time is divided between large group instruction, community engagement experiences, facilitated team activities, and student-…
Focus groups were conducted with alumni/ae of Saint Louis University’s health professions programs that participated in interprofessional education (IPE) curriculum. The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of longitudinal IPE on clinical practice behaviors and experiences across multiple health professions (occupational therapy, physical therapy, pharmacy, and medicine. Because IPE can occur at various time points across health professions education and training, this project was focused on understanding how and where individuals acquired and utilized training at different stages…