Macy grant team presents at international Collaborating Across Borders III Conference

Eight members of the UW Macy grant team were a strong presence at the international Collaborating Across Borders III (CABIII) Conference in Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 19-21 as they highlighted their accomplishments in advancing interprofessional educational initiatives at UW.

CABIII is the third Canada–United States collaborative conference on interprofessional education (IPE) and practice. This year, 764 attendees from 10 countries participated in the conference. Presentations included interprofessional education, practice, research and policy in a national and global context and featured best practices, research evidence, program outcomes, and lessons learned.

The UW team was headed by Macy Grant co-principal investigator Brenda Zierler. Team members included Sarah Shannon (School of Nursing); Karen McDonough (School of Medicine); Nanci Murphy (School of Pharmacy); Erin Abu-Rish (School of Nursing); Ken Plitt (School of Medicine); Mayumi Willgerodt (School of Nursing); Dana Hammer (School of Pharmacy); Doug Brock (MEDEX); Katherine Blondon (Ph.D. student in Health Services); and Chia-Ju Chiu (School of Nursing).

The UW team presentations highlighted innovations from a three-year long project to integrate interprofessional education and practice into the health sciences curricula at UW. The project was funded by The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which supports innovative research and programs designed to improve the health of the public.

McDonough led a workshop demonstrating an IPE acute-care team communication simulation scenario that has been successfully integrated into the senior health professional student education. Shannon led a workshop on the error disclosure curriculum developed and now used with 500 students and 80 faculty at UW’s Health Sciences Interprofessional Day. (Read about the 2011 event in UW Today). The next Health Sciences Interprofessional Day is scheduled for March 6.  Zierler described the innovative Interprofessional Teaching Scholars Program developed in conjunction with the Department of Medical Education. One of the team’s four posters won the top prize in the Policy Theme. View the poster created by Doug Brock, UW associate professor of family medicine. 

“The UW Macy team truly is finding a new and better way to teach health professional students how to work together as a healthcare team,” Shannon said. “The energy in Tucson around our work was infectious!”

Visit the the Center for Health Science Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice website for more information.

Originally appeared in UW Medicine Online News 

UW Medicine.  (2011).  Online News 12/16/2011.  Retrieved January 5, 2012, from http://engage.washington.edu/site/PageNavigator/UWMedicine/OnlineNews/OnlineNews_12162011