Fall 2020 – Spring 2022: In the past four semesters, CUNY’s university-wide IPER initiative for Health and Human Service (HHS) programs has conducted more than 100 simulated Interprofessional Education (IPE) sessions and learning events – supported by 30 trained faculty facilitators – for over 2,000 students, representing 13 campuses, 15 disciplines and 23 undergraduate and graduate HHS degree programs.
The mission of CUNY’s IPER initiative for health and human service programs is to transform education within and between CUNY’s health and human service programs, disciplines and campuses to prepare future and practicing professions with the knowledge, values and skills needed to successfully participate in collaborative clinical and community teams.
Interprofessional education and practice is defined as experiences when two or more HHS professions learn with, about and from each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. In response to COVID-19, we’ve pivoted the program to conduct virtually simulated IPE learning events using in-patient, community-based and public health case scenarios in the context of COVID-19, designed by a multidisciplinary group of 25 faculty members representing 10 disciplines across 14 campuses. Sim-IPE was expanded in fall 2021 to include three new scenarios: pediatrics, surgical ENT and substance use disorder. In-person IPE experiences were added in Spring 2022, with additional case scenarios for autism and depression/suicidality.
With CUNY’s uniquely broad and diverse health professions education programs (at the AS, BS, MS, MPH, MD, and PhD levels) and with our joint operation (with NYU) of NYSIM, we have the potential to improve health care education and health outcomes by offering an accessible and inclusive approach for IPE through realistic patient scenarios and faculty-trained IPE facilitators to engage students across HHS disciplines in interprofessional learning experiences.
These IPE learning experiences address skills training and prepare students for the evolving practice of health and human services in response to COVID-19. This initiative also aligns with our mission for equitable and accessible higher education and the joining of health disciplines across CUNY campuses to improve student learning experiences and demonstrate the importance of teamwork and collaboration.
A signature component of CUNY’s IPER efforts is the integration of implicit bias into all IPE learning activities to build awareness that unconscious bias exists and to help students take steps to reduce the likelihood that bias will impact their care and patient outcomes. Most importantly, it is a critical component of CUNY’s mission to advance health equity, particularly for New York’s most vulnerable populations.
As national health care organizations and employers emphasize the importance of team-based care to improve health care delivery, minimize costs and maximize patient outcomes, it’s crucial for CUNY’s graduates to gain experience as members of an interprofessional health care team to enhance their readiness to successfully engage in professional practice through distinctive collaborative training. Ideally, this innovative approach will significantly enhance the professional training and career readiness of our students through access to high-quality collaborative practice experiences.
