Effective communication with patients and other health professionals is paramount. Unfortunately, today’s students remain under-trained in health literacy communication. The importance of health literacy, combined with increasing accreditation expectations for interprofessional communication, affords a rich opportunity for interprofessional education (IPE). As a critical skill, health literacy IPE also provides an opportunity to assess advanced learning outcomes.We developed an…

Polypharmacy is a dilemma seen predominantly in older adult patients and patients with chronic, complex illnesses, with complicated medication regimens prescribed by multiple providers. Preventing medication errors and adverse drug reactions are a priority for patient safety, and medication reconciliation is an important step which requires interprofessional communication to ensure that all medication-related information is accurately and appropriately transferred during care transitions.…

Interprofessional Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (iACLS), a simulation-based certification program for medical, nursing, and pharmacy students, is a component of the longitudinal interprofessional education (IPE) curricula at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and School of Nursing and University of the Sciences’ Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. ACLS is a team-based strategy to optimize survival in patients with life-threatening cardiac emergencies. Since…

Despite common use in patient care, interprofessional practice is less utilized in health professions education (HPE) research. Using art, music, and other humanities disciplines coupled with academic disciplines in the sciences, interprofessional practice in HPE is an innovative means for exploring new avenues for investigating and presenting science data. Our lab’s research objectives draw on each profession’s expertise and creative problem-solving for addressing quality and safety in the…

Few healthcare caregivers receive formal training about end-of-life (EOL) communication skills. Given the growing population of patients with chronic and life-limiting illnesses, caregivers in all professions need to be comfortable at leading a difficult conversation. Historically, EOL conversations have been led by physicians. Other healthcare professionals including nurses and psychosocial providers bring a unique perspective to these conversations but are often excluded. Not only do these…

It is important to assess the effectiveness of all interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) activities; however, current assessment measures pose considerable time burdens to participants and event logistics. Continual innovation in assessment needs to remain a priority for IPE programs. The Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) is a frequently used assessment measure of perceived IPCP skill levels. This survey is administered after an interprofessional…