As more colleges start multidisciplinary programs that span different professions, health educators face a challenge: How should they teach people within one field — medicine — in a way that improves patient outcomes?
Some institutions that teach doctors, health-information specialists, nurses, therapists, and other health workers have embraced a model that gathers them in teams. The idea is that team members who work together in the field should be taught together as well, at least part of the time.
Several medical and health-sciences schools have embraced such “interprofessional education,” including those at the University of California at San Francisco, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Toronto.
Spurred on by recent reports from the National Academy of Medicine and the World Health Organization that have called for more collaboration among various types of health practitioners to improve patients’ experience, universities are pouring money and energy into such programs.
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“Until recently we’ve lacked the institutional will to do this, but it has become a movement,” says Rajesh Mangrulkar, associate dean for medical-student education at the University of Michigan’s Medical School.
Seven of Michigan’s schools — its health-science schools and the School of Social Work — which collectively enroll 4,000 students, formed the Interprofessional Health Education and Collaborative Care Project two years ago, with a team-based decision-making class, an online course on health policy, and a clinical-experience course taught by nurses and others for the benefit of medical students.
Students at the University of Kansas are walked through health-situation simulations in teams and are included in learning activities that involve faculty members from nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, and other health professions.
“It’s become a bandwagon among faculty and students,” says Norbert Belz, chair of the health-information department at Kansas’ Medical Center and founder of the university’s interprofessional-education effort.
Although team-teaching and silo-busting programs have been lauded for enticing students in other disciplines to sign on, Mr. Belz says that isn’t the goal in medicine.
“Drawing in students is secondary. This is really all about improving patient care,” he says, adding that the school has nonetheless had little problem enrolling students in the courses.
“Students in this generation don’t have to be persuaded that this is important,” says Dr. Mangrulkar. “Most of them are used to working in teams. They really like walking into a classroom or clinic with a greater understanding of the various roles team members play in treatment. They hear what each profession goes through and what they think as they treat a patient. They learn from the perspective of others.”
