Integrating public health students into interprofessional education

ABSTRACT

Recognizing the public health professional are critical members of interprofessional teams, the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) recently added a required Masters of Public Health (MPH) student competency focused on interprofessional education (IPE). A student-centered approach to the design and evaluation of an emergency preparedness-focused curricular program to meet the interprofessional needs of MPH students was used to meet this expectation at the University of Washington. Curriculum design was informed by two 80-minute listening sessions with MPH students to better understand their current interprofessional educational experiences and needs, and how an emergency preparedness-focused two-hour Interprofessional Active Learning Series (iPALS) session could help them develop interprofessional competency. The resultant iPALS session was assessed with a short, paper-based questionnaire. We found MPH students have an interest in participating in IPE, and that all students who participated in the emergency preparedness-focused iPALS session reported significant increases in their interprofessional and disaster response abilities based on their pre- and post-session evaluations. Student-centered IPE curriculum focused on emergency preparedness can enhance the self-reported ability of students across the health sciences to perform on interprofessional teams while engaging in a topic that has relevance to MPH students.

KEYWORDS:

• Focus groups
• interprofessional education
• case study
• emergency preparedness

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle M. Averill

Michelle M. Averill is a Dietitian and Senior Lecturer working in clinical nutrition, evidence-based teaching, and interprofessional research.

Laurel Dillon-Sumner

Laurel Dillon-Sumner is an Implementation & Evaluation Associate with Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute.

Andy Stergachis

Andy Stergachis is a Professor of Pharmacy and Global Health and Adjunct Professor of Health Services and Epidemiology, Associate Dean of the School of Pharmacy, and Director of the Global Medicines Program at the University of Washington.

Jeff Sconyers

Jeff Sconyers teaches in the Master of Health Administration program at the University of Washington and was formerly Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Nicole Summerside

Nicole Summerside is a program operations manager at the University of Washington Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice.

Tracy Brazg

Tracy Brazg is the Director of Operations at the University of Washington Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice as well as an Ethics Consultant.

Nicole Errett

Nicole Errett is a Lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and her research and expertise are in the use of public policy to enhance health outcomes during and after disaster.