Penn State Medicine

Learning together increases open communication and mutual respect

Before medicine became so specialized or new technology so freely available, the team delivering care to a patient was small and able to communicate easily. Today, multiple professionals, including everyone from emergency physicians, surgeons, and nurses to social workers, pharmacists, and rehab personnel, must work together to do what is best for the patient. “Medicine has come to the point where it has so many moving parts,” says Paul Haidet, M.D., M.P.H., ’91, ’94R, director of medical education research, Penn State College of Medicine. “What needs to happen is people seeing how their role fits in the big picture and coordinating with others in that picture to benefit the patient.”

That is exactly what the College of Medicine and School of Nursing had in mind when they collaborated on a new project to improve health care delivery. Initially funded through a Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation grant, the project brings together fourth-year nursing students and first-year medical students in a series of workshops that focus on safety and quality issues. The need for this type of interprofessional education came out of recent studies related to quality improvement, according to Mary Beth Clark, R.N., Ed.D., assistant professor of nursing, School of Nursing—Penn State Hershey Campus Coordinator. “More and more attention is being paid to patient safety and quality improvement. When there is a medication error, it is not really just one person’s issue. Many times it is a system-wide error that leads to the mistake,” explains Clark, who is responsible, together with Haidet, for the coordination of the interprofessional quality and safety curriculum in health sciences education. “You have to look at the system and how it is designed to help people interact and communicate with each other.The idea grew that this should start in the education process.” (more…)

February 13, 2012 at 1:30 am nkazmar Leave a comment