Wendy
Ward,
PhD, ABPP, FAPA, FNAP
Professor, Associate Provost for Faculty
UAMS
Wendy L. Ward, Ph.D., ABPP, FAPA is Associate Provost for Faculty, Professor, and Director of Interprofessional Faculty Development at UAMS. She oversees the Office of Continuing Education and the Center for Faculty Excellence for her institution, and provides support and development programs for faculty across the career life cycle from recruitment to retirement. Specific to IPE, she provides faculty development offerings across the five UAMS Colleges and the Graduate School on topics related to interprofessional collaboration such as how to build core competency skill domains for integrated, collaborative clinical care, and how to teach interprofessional learners to build these skills. She is a facilitator and lead facilitator for many IPE student events, and trains and certifies all the facilitators at her institution. Further, she coordinates an integrated behavioral health service for a large children’s hospital, and outpatient psychology services integrated within 32 pediatric subspecialty clinics.
Presenting at the Nexus Summit:
The Quality Improvement in Advanced Learners Program (QIALP) is a 9-month quality improvement (QI) program designed to train advanced learners (medical residents/fellows, advanced practice or doctoral nursing students, pharmacy residents, etc) to work effectively on interprofessional teams (each with two faculty facilitators and one experienced QI mentor) while using quality improvement science methodology. Project ideas are derived by institutional/hospital senior leadership, faculty facilitators, and the advanced learners themselves. Projects address one or more Quadruple Aim goals (…
Our academic health center delivers a 3-phase (exposure, immersion, competence) interprofessional education (IPE) curriculum that is a graduation requirement. On March 13th, 2020 onsite classes were suspended due to the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the state. Faculty rapidly implemented alternative methods of instruction to complete coursework for the spring semester. Many classes were hosted on a virtual platform using Zoom.During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare students and faculty stepped forward with a desire to serve. Several public health support programs were provided by the…
In order to continue to deliver high quality interprofessional education during the COVID-19 pandemic, educational innovations including virtual simulations have been necessary. The Mock Trial interprofessional learning event is designed to give law students and medical, nursing, pharmacy, public health and other healthcare professions students exposure to a medical negligence trial and the opportunity to learn about, from and with each other as they collaborate as a jury to reach a verdict. To enable this to continue during the pandemic, transition to the virtual platform was required.…
A medical negligence trial can be stressful for all involved and may be the first time in a courtroom for many health professionals. To provide students the opportunity to learn from, with and about each other, the Mock Trial was established as an annual collaborative learning event between the University of Arkansas Little Rock Law School and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in 2018. In 2021, Mock Trial was conducted virtually with the goal of continuing high-quality IPE throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students participate as jury members via Zoom and first hear the…
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a pedagogical change with many learning events now virtual or hybrid in nature. Simulation events are particularly affected due to their hands-on nature. Traditionally, an in-person Facilitator Training and IPE Event Training Design course is held at our university. This has been adapted to a virtual Facilitating Virtual Simulations Crash Course, addressing the format/objectives/expectations and strategies for facilitators of virtual IP simulations.
Sixteen virtual IP simulations have been delivered for students in 19 professions since September 2020…
Over the past 10 years, health care training programs have been working together to create and implement robust interprofessional education opportunities to meet accreditation requirements and prepare the next generation of team-based learners for collaborative practice. A few states have developed statewide consortiums to join forces in this effort. Geographical distance has limited multi-institution IPE events, decreasing student involvement and the overall impact of statewide collaborative efforts. However, when the COVID-19 Pandemic arrived in early 2020, one statewide consortium saw this…
Health care professionals are under incredible stress—increasing clinical loads, decreasing budgets, transformational changes in care delivery, and more. Burnout rates were drawing national attention even before the COVID-19 Pandemic began and have enhanced those concerns ever since. Self-awareness, reflection, and expression of health care professional stress is critical. The humanities offer the opportunity for artistic expression of the deep meaning in our work, a broader exploration of the drivers of stress in the healthcare environment, and an opportunity to share these insights with…