Happy Interprofessional Practice Month!
April marks the celebration of Interprofessional Health Care Month. Below is a proclamation from the National Academies of Practice (NAP):
April Workshop Announcement
CIPE’s April workshop series, Soliciting Tips for Impacting Psychological Safety on Teams, is in celebration of National Interprofessional Healthcare Month! The CIPE has assembled a panelist of clinicians working in interprofessional teams to discuss how they promote psychological safety and work interprofessionally to accomplish their team’s goals. We welcome interprofessional clinical teams from the Washington University Pro-Bono Clinic and BJH Outpatient Gynecologic Oncology.
Catch this workshop Thursday, April 25, 12-1p or Tuesday, April 30, 4-5p. Registration information is available on The CIPE’s events page.
Master Interprofessional Educator Updates
An online Community for our Master Interprofessional Educators (MIE) is being created. The purpose of the MIE Community will be to:
- Build a community of practice where all have access to CIPE content
- Empower MIEs to collaborate within their spheres of influence, and learn about, with and from each other
- Mobilize MIEs to help facilitate CIPE professional development programming, as well as curriculum for our students
CIPE has trained 58 Master Interprofessional Educators to date and will induct at least another 13 health professionals in May.
Current MIEs look out for emails soon launching our virtual forum.
IF YOU ARE NOT YET AN MIE, the cycle starts with attending our foundational IPE 101 & 201 workshops which will next be held in June. Click here to check out these and all our professional development opportunities.
Hotspotting Reflection
From left to right: Janie Baker – Pharmacy, Tyler Hood – Occupational Therapy, Kate Gershwin – Public Health, Ashley Huggins – Medicine
For the past several months, I have had the pleasure of participating in Community Interprofessional Care Coordination, also known as “Hotspotting.” With the support of our mentor, Keely Finney, CHW, my Hotspotting team worked with two participants from the community who expressed a desire for extra support.
My experience with Hotspotting was challenging, yet highly rewarding and instructive. Working with an interprofessional team allowed me to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the various health professions represented. For example, the occupational therapy student on my team stepped in to field questions about activities of daily living, mobility, and social participation. As a public health student, I felt confident supporting our participants with questions related to the social determinants of health, Medicare and Medicaid, and health behaviors. However, my colleagues in nursing, medicine, and pharmacy were better positioned to respond to specific medical questions.
Our participants were low-income individuals from minoritized populations. They experienced the compounding effects of poor health, economic disadvantage, and racism, particularly in healthcare. To provide an example, one of our participants lived in Section 8 housing. She expressed that she felt unsafe in her building, as non-residents would often convene or sleep in the hallways. The building was also infested with vermin, posing an additional safety hazard. The participant tried to alert her caseworker to these issues but was repeatedly ignored. These factors exacerbated our participant’s anxiety and insomnia, causing her significant distress. Working with this participant cemented the idea that our social, cultural, and built environments play an important role in shaping our health and help-seeking behaviors. My Hotspotting team worked with this participant to improve her environment, thus alleviating stress and improving her overall wellbeing. For example, we helped her search for new housing, encouraged her to advocate for herself with her caseworker, and assisted her in accessing gym benefits through Medicaid.
Overall, my Hotspotting experience was extremely positive. It is my hope that this program can be expanded to reach more students and more community members.
— Kate Gershwin, CIPE MPH intern
Resources for Resiliency
The CIPE recently welcomed a panel of facilitators from across the Washington University Medical Campus to discuss the efforts being made to address the well-being of the health care team across both professions and the continuum of education for our February Professional Development Workshop.
Panelists shared meaningful resources with our participants, listed below:
- BJC Resiliency (bjclearn.org)
- The GME Wellness Program
- The Well-Developed Podcast also available on Spotify
- NYT article: Workplace Wellness Programs Have Little Benefit, Study Finds
Thank you again to our amazing panelists:
- Jenny Duncan, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Wellness for Graduate Medical Education, WUSM
- Erin Herrera, MSN, CRNA, Associate Vice Chair of Well-Being, Assistant Director of CRNA Activities, Department of Anesthesiology, WUSM
- Rachel Moquin, EdD, MA, Assistant Professor and Director of Learning and Development, Department of Anesthesiology, WUSM
- Catherine Powers, MSN, RN, ACNS-BC, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Heart & Vascular Center, WUSM & Barnes-Jewish Hospital
- Sarah Colby, MFA, BFA, Arts + Healthcare Program Coordinator, Barnes-Jewish Hospital
What We’re Reading
Stating the obvious, burnout is rampant across the health professions. This recently published article demonstrates the value of strong teamwork in addressing the concern, “As your perception of teamwork increases, burnout goes down” (composite score of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization).
We must do better for each other and those for whom we care! I’m excited to share that something I took last fall is now available FREE and ON DEMAND: the Duke WELL-B Essentials which is demonstrated to lower emotional exhaustion & improve recovery. This 5-hour series features evidence-based tools cultivating work-life balance, gratitude, self-compassion, awe and group-level well-being.
Click below to learn more about Well-B Essentials:
Try it out, share with your teammates, and let me know if it helps!
— Heather