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.