The mission of our IPE program is to make a positive difference in the lives and health of the citizenry of Georgia, the nation, and the global community by prioritizing interprofessional education to prepare a graduate that is patient-centered and collaborative.

Our program is designed to align with the consensus standards and core competencies endorsed by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC):

1. Value and Ethics (VE): Work with team members to maintain a climate of shared values, ethical conduct, and mutual respect.
2. Roles and Responsibilities (RR): Use the knowledge of one’s own role and team members’ expertise to address individual and population health outcomes.
3. Communication (C): Communicate in a responsive, responsible, respectful, and compassionate manner with team members.
4. Teams and Teamwork (TT): Apply values and principles of the science of teamwork to adapt one’s own role in a variety of team settings.

About the Experience

In this mock public-health event, first-year pharmacy students collaborate with nurse practitioners, nursing, epidemiology, and medical translation students to provide patient-centered care in response to a local reportable disease outbreak. By providing care for a standardized patient both in person and during a telehealth appointment, team members learn how each profession contributes to the patient care process. Students also learn about teamwork and why communication is vital within healthcare. An example is when the team learns of their professional reporting responsibilities in a disease outbreak and must interact with epidemiology students to understand the investigation process to track and minimize the spread of disease.

Key Characteristics

• Partners: UGA College of Public Health, UGA School of Romance Languages, Augusta University College of Nursing
• Professions Involved: pharmacists, nurse practitioners, epidemiologists, and medical translators
• Numbers: ~280 students and 10 faculty

Key Learning Objectives

1. Explain the roles and responsibilities of other health providers and epidemiologists in a public health outbreak. (RR1-5, C1)
2. Discuss contribution of team members to the patient care process and outbreak management. (RR1-RR4, VE4)
3. Utilize effective communication practices in an inter-professional team in a public health emergency. (C1-2, C4-7)
4. Collaborate with team members to formulate an evidenced-based plan of care for patients with giardia. (TT2-4, TT7-8, TT10, VE5-10)

About the Experience

This interprofessional education event introduces second-year pharmacy students to the ways in which physician assistants approach physical assessment and render a diagnosis based on the patient’s history, current complaints, and symptomatology. The PAP2-L session takes place in the Fall semester in a virtual environment allowing for teams to “round” to care for a patient over the 4 months. This continuity of care provides time and space for the team to determine their roles and responsibilities as they follow a learning plan to care for their patient.

PAP2-A is a continuation of these teams into the Spring semester when PA students visit the College of Pharmacy for an in person follow up appointment with their patient. The teams work in an outpatient setting with PA students performing a physical exam and pharmacy students working to create treatment plans based on the PA’s diagnosis. The students must work as a team to provide holistic care and solve a clinical dilemma that resulted from their care in the Fall. This collaborative effort helps each profession gain an appreciation of the other’s thought processes when assessing a patient’s status and developing a plan to manage and/or resolve the diagnosis. Using a team approach takes advantage of each profession’s strengths with the goal of improving the efficiency and optimizing the delivery of direct patient care.

Key Characteristics

• Partners: Augusta University PA Program
• Professions Involved: pharmacists and physician assistants
• Numbers: ~180 students and 15 faculty

Key Learning Objectives

1. Collaborate in a team consisting of other healthcare discipline students through multiple simulation case sessions. (RR1-RR5)
2. Determine optimal therapy after observing or being given the clinical signs and symptoms, physical examination results, and diagnostics test results as an integral team member during simulation case sessions. (TT1-TT9, VE6-VE10)
3. Determine the education that should be provided to the patient during simulation case sessions after observing or being given the patient history, current medications, and other pertinent information provided. (RR3, RR4, VE4, VE7)
4. Demonstrate effective communication skills to build IPE team rapport to achieve optimal management choices for chosen disease states. (C1-C5)
5. Identify strategies to manage conflict within an IPE team to achieve desired outcome. (C6, Cc7, VE11, RR5, TT5, TT10)
6. Reflect on the IPE activities and identify strengths and weaknesses in personal performance. (C1, C6, TT6)

About the Experience

A dedicated day to build relationships with three other professions. Third-year Pharmacy students (P3s) join second-year medicine (M2), graduate level social work, and senior nurse practitioner students to collaborate in the management  of virtual patient as they transition through the medical system. Traditionally the case encompasses contemporary issues seen within our community and allows the team members to learn the strengths of each profession while also increasing their clinical knowledge. The dialogue with other professional students helps the pharmacy student gain confidence and increased understanding of the role pharmacists play within the healthcare team. The session also includes a keynote speaker associated with the clinical problem covered in the case, allowing the presenter to build upon the need for team work in modern day healthcare. In the end, the goal is that students from four professions meet and gain understanding of the others’ professional roles and responsibilities prior to interacting with other healthcare professionals during rotations throughout the state.

Key Characteristics

• Partners: UGA College of Nursing, UGA College of Social Work, Augusta University/AU Medical Partnership, and East Carolina University School of Social Work
• Professions Involved: pharmacists, physicians, social workers, and nurse practitioners
• Numbers: ~300 students and 60 faculty

Key Learning Objectives

1. Collaborate in a team consisting of other healthcare discipline students through multiple simulation case sessions. (RR1-RR5, TT10)
2. Determine optimal therapy after observing or being given the clinical signs and symptoms, physical examination results, and diagnostics test results as an integral team member during simulation case sessions. (TT1-TT9, VE6-VE10)
3. Determine the education that should be provided to the patient during simulation case sessions after observing or being given the patient history, current medications, and other pertinent information provided. (RR3, RR4, VE4, VE7)
4. Demonstrate effective communication skills to build IPE team rapport to achieve optimal management choices for chosen disease states. (C1-C5, VE6)
5. Identify strategies to manage conflict within an IPE team to achieve desired outcome. (C6, VE11, RR5, TT5)
6. Reflect on the IPE activities and identify strengths and weaknesses in personal performance. (C1, C6, TT6)

About the Experience

This session is designed to allow third-year pharmacy (P3) and second-year (M2) medical students from over 5 different campuses the opportunity to interact and carry out their roles in a cooperative healthcare setting. Several scenarios are presented requiring learners to react to ethically challenging patient situations involving various healthcare providers. Students explore and discuss various considerations from the standpoint of their specific professional expectations and seek to understand the position of the other parties involved. Several tools and templates are presented to give student practitioners options on how to navigate successfully through the various scenarios. The desired outcome is for students to develop the decision-making skills needed to analyze similar situations in the future and make decisions based on a better understanding of the guiding principles, values and practice standards of the various parties (healthcare colleagues, patients, and families) involved and their respective professions.

Key Characteristics

• Partners: Augusta University and AU/UGA Medical Partnership
• Professions Involved: pharmacists and physicians
• Numbers: ~380 students and 25 faculty

Key Learning Objectives

1. Understand and apply the principles of interprofessional teamwork to promote a climate of mutual respect to provide optimal patient care. (C7, VE1-3, VE5-8, VE11)
2. Recognize the importance of respecting the dignity and privacy of patients while maintaining confidentiality in the delivery of team-based care. (VE3, VE4)
3. Recognize the cultural diversity and individual differences that characterize patients, populations and the health team. (VE1, VE2, VE4, VE6)
4. Demonstrate respect for the unique cultures, values, roles/responsibilities, and expertise of other health professionals and the impact these factors can have on health outcomes. (VE4, VE5, VE7, VE8, VE 10, VE11)
5. Demonstrate a high standard of ethical conduct and quality of care in contributions to team-based care. (VE6, VE8, VE9, VE10)

During their fourth year (P4), our student pharmacists complete eight, 5-week experiences in a diverse range of settings, including acute care, outpatient, community, and advanced institutional/health-system settings. During each of these rotations, students interact with a wide and comprehensive range of healthcare and allied health professionals, including:

• Physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and physician assistants
• Respiratory therapists, speech therapists, and physical therapists
• EMTs and paramedics
• Dentists, optometrists, and audiologists
• Nutritionists, dietitians, and hygienists
• Social workers, personal care aides, and occupational therapists
• All kinds of specialists and technicians
• And more!

This elective course is designed to prepare third-year pharmacy students (P3s) for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences and for providing direct patient care in the clinical setting. The IPE course emphasizes the necessity of working within a team when caring for patients, providing opportunities for P3s to work side-by-side with second-year medical students (M2s) in managing simulated patients in an acute setting by being involved in therapeutic decision-making at the point of care. This occurs during three interprofessional education-driven simulation experiences utilizing the Simulation Center located on the Augusta University/UGA Partnership campus. The experiences are supplemented with lectures to discuss the topic of each simulation and debriefs post-session. In addition, there are lectures, case-based discussions, and role modeling on team dynamics, communication, managing conflict, and how to approach patients as a team.

Other Media

• Fall 2020 IPE Keynote Address – delivered by the co-founders of the Georgia Overdose Prevention Center

In the News

• UGA Pharmacy Receives National Award for Interprofessional Education Collaboration
• Students work together to help patient
• GLIDE program fosters interprofessional collaboration
• Third Annual Value and Ethics Interprofessional Educational Event
• Giardia IPE Simulation Trains Students to Work Interprofessionally