Welcome to the Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice

UW School of Dentistry Forms Marathon Team to Support Oral Health

UW Oral health PhD candidate Wenjie Li  has formed a UW School of Dentistry team to participate in the annual 26-mile Rock and Roll Marathon on June 22 to raise funds to support a community outreach program that promotes oral health for women and children in need. Anyone interested in participating in either the marathon or the half-marathon is cordially invited to join the team.

The marathon begins at 7:00am at the Seattle Center. Participants of this team will not only be supporting oral heath, but they will also be experiencing beautiful scenery, live local bands, spirited cheer squads and other benefits along the way.

For more information about joining the UW School of Dentistry in this cause, please contact either Wenjii Li (liwenj87@uw.edu) or Heidi Sarff  (heidis4@uw.edu). For more information about the Rock and Roll Marathon, please visit the site.

Donations for the event are also welcome. Please visit this site to make a donation.

UW Health Sciences Common Book Series

Opportunities for students to increase knowledge about reducing medical errors and improving patient care in interprofessional settings, especially in cases when cultures clash. The kick-off meeting is at Rotunda (Magnuson Health Sciences Center) from 5:30pm to 8:00pm on Wednesday, October 3, 2012. Please come join us for the keynote addressed by Dr. Noel Chrisman, Professor of Psychosocial & Pommunity Health in the School of Nursing. Dinner will be provided!

Upcoming Discussion Sessions:

• 2012/10/16 5:00-7:00PM
  School of Social Work Building, Room 305 AB (Hosted by School of Social Work & School of Nursing)
• 2012/10/22 11:00AM-1:00PM
  Health Sciences Building, Room H105 (Hosted by School of Medex & School of Pharmacy)
• 2012/11/15 5:00-7:00PM
  Health Sciences Building, Room T661 (Hosted by School of Dentistry & School of Rehab Medicine)
• 2012/11/27 5:00-7:00PM
  Health Sciences Building, Room T553 (Hosted by School of Medicine & School of Public Health)

New Macy Grant for Faculty Development

UW School of Nursing Professor Brenda Zierler and co-Pi, physician Leslie Hall from University of Missouri-Columbia received a Macy Foundation grant to teach faculty from across the country how to conduct interprofessional training programs.

The new funding, received in February, allowed faculty from health sciences schools across the United States to come to the UW to learn how to implement interprofessional education, such as error disclosure training, at their own institution. More than 35 faculty members spent four days from March 5–8, 2012 at the UW and at the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies at Harborview Medical Center. There they explored ways to teach their faculty colleagues to be facilitators of interprofessional education and practice.

Leslie Hall, senior associate dean for clinical affairs at the University of Missouri-Columbia and UW’s Brenda Zierler were awarded a second Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation grant to train faculty to lead interprofessional education and practice. Twenty-two faculty members from the Universities of Virginia, North Dakota, Kentucky, Missouri School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Indiana University School of Medicine, Columbia University School of Nursing, and the Medical School of South Carolina joined five UW faculty members from the Veteran’s Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and eight UW Health Sciences faculty members for the training last week.

“There is a national focus on training students to work together collaboratively to improve communication, but the training needs to start with faculty first,” said Zierler. “Faculty can model teamwork behaviors for students and they can create the opportunities to train health professional students together by emphasizing communication, teamwork, collaborative care, values and ethics, and role clarity.”

The IHI Open School—UW Chapter 2012 Kick Off

On February 22, over 100 dental, medical, Master of Health Administration, nursing, physician assistant, and pharmacy students attended an interprofessional social event led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School—UW Chapter in the Health Sciences Building. The evening’s purpose was to bridge the gap between the different departments while focusing on teamwork and healthcare quality. Officers from each school worked hard planning the event. According to the PharmD candidate Michael Cusumano,

"The six of us came together because we all wanted to have more contact with students in other health disciplines.  We all realized that we had been fairly ignorant about disciplines other than our own.  These students are going to be our teammates when we enter the workforce.  The foundation of a strong team starts now, just by getting to know each other.  That's the idea behind the event, and apparently, a lot of other students have been feeling the same way." 

With this goal in mind, the evening kicked off with introductions of the IHI Open School officers and an ice breaker game introducing students to their peers in other disciplines. In the game each student was given a questionnaire with healthcare-related questions—but with a catch: each question targeted the knowledge of specific schools, so that students could only answer the questions studied in their department. This game set up a low-key environment for students to mingle while learning simultaneously about the other professions. Free pizza and beverages were offered, courtesy of the IHI, for students to enjoy while socializing and completing the questionnaire.

After getting to know each another, students regrouped for a presentation by guest speaker Dr. Mike Westley, an ICU physician at Virginia Mason with 20 years of experience in the IHI. Dr. Westley’s presentation focused on the growing need for opportunities for quality improvement in healthcare. He touched upon aspects of safety, system properties, and included a demonstration highlighting for students an adage that when you are looking for something in particular, you often miss unexpected events.  With this lesson in mind, Dr. Westley challenged students to see the defacts in the healthcare system that are actually right in front of them. He ended his presentation by encouraging the audience to take action immediately by meeting with other departments and promoting content knowledge and interprofessional collaboration. 

The evening received a great turnout of both students and faculty members. Thanks to the hard work of the planners and speakers, the event provided the opportunity for everyone to learn about quality improvement in healthcare while meeting and gaining knowledge about their future teammates.