Responses to Covid-19 Pandemic

“Build it while we fly it” was a phrase heard repeatedly as health professions educators scrambled to respond in a meaningful way to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In the new landscape of remote work and online communication, collaboration had to be redefined to meet accreditation requirements and provide students with robust team-based experiences.  Rapid innovations were developed and multiple approaches were taken for interprofessional education, but what did we build and does it fly?

The Response to COVID-19 Pandemic Track focuses on how practitioners delivered interprofessional education and collaborative practice during the pandemic.  Among the solutions were translation of existing events to the virtual format, development of new online initiatives, incorporation of telehealth methodologies, and leveraging the crisis to initiate new partnerships.  21 lightning talks and 4 seminars will address these areas to provide an overview of how the IPE community moved collaboration online.

Lightning Talks have been grouped into the following sub-tracks:

• Large-scale online IPE events
• Telehealth solutions
• Interinstitutional collaborations for online IPE
• Shifting to the virtual environment

Learning Objectives:

By participating in the Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Track, attendees will be able to:

1. Articulate multiple ways IPE practitioners provided team-based learning in an online environment during the pandemic;
2. Describe how large-scale immersive learning experiences were reconceptualized and implemented virtually;
3. Identify ways that Telehealth methodologies support virtual interprofessional learning; and
4. Understand the pitfalls of and best practices for developing interprofessional online learning opportunities.

 Reflective Questions:

1. What are the challenges to reconceptualizing an existing event for an online environment vs. developing a new initiative?
2. What are the benefits of online learning over in-person learning?  What are the drawbacks?
3. How can you incorporate Telehealth methodologies into an online interprofessional activities at your institution?
4. What is the lasting legacy of rapid innovations for IPE in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?  What didn’t work?  What do we refine, augment, and further disseminate? 

Suggested Resources:

• Langlois, S., Xyrichis, A., Daulton, B. J., Gilbert, J., Lackie, K., Lising, D., & Khalili, H. (2020). The COVID-19 crisis silver lining: interprofessional education to guide future innovation. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(5), 587-592.
• Lazinski, M. J., Ross, L., Wolf, S., Finck, M., & Cherry, L. (2021). Interprofessional Education at a Distance: The Hybrid Interprofessional Education Model. Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, 19(3), 15.
• Lipscomb, C. P., & Zupec, J. (2020). Use of telehealth experiences to facilitate interprofessional education. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 77(10), 734–738.
• Jadotte, Y. T., & Noel, K. (2021). Definitions and core competencies for interprofessional education in telehealth practice. Clinics in Integrated Care, 6, 100054.
• Jones, T. A., Vidal, G., & Taylor, C. (2020). Interprofessional education during the COVID-19 pandemic: finding the good in a bad situation. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(5), 633-646.
• Karpa, K. (2021). Tips for converting interprofessional education sessions from in-person to remote synchronous formats for experiential learning. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, 22, 100408.
• Michalec, B., & Lamb, G. (2020). COVID-19 and team-based healthcare: The essentiality of theory-driven research. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(5), 593-599.
• Romito, L., Pfeifle, A. L., Weber, Z. A., & Daulton, B. J. (2020). Successful conversion of simulation-based interprofessional education in a pandemic.  https://scholarworks.iupui.edu