Although patient-centered care is a cornerstone of quality designated by the Institute of Medicine, the quality chasm in the United States health care system remains a reality and health disparities continue to widen. With health care reform and redesign, new models of health care delivery need careful integration with innovative models of health professions education. Interprofessional education (IPE) is gaining increasing attention as a critically important approach to optimize the preparation of the future healthcare workforce, to bridge the gap between health professions education and practice delivery, and most importantly, as a vehicle to optimize patient-centered care and reduce health disparities. IPE is now an accreditation standard for some health professional schools in the United States. Traditional health professions education takes place in silos, with limited opportunities for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health professionals to learn and practice in interprofessional teams during their formative years. The goal of the session is to engage participants in a critical thinking process to analyze the untapped potential for addressing health disparities via interprofessional collaborative education and research, through the common pathway of social determinants of health. The presenter will share her work that specifically aims to meet the nationally recognized need to train health professions students in interprofessional teams in community-based settings to reduce health disparities.
Transforming Health Disparities through Interprofessional Education, Research & Service
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