Program Description
The Health Systems Sciences Interprofessional (IPE) Scholars Program (previously called the Daniels Scholar Program) is a joint initiative between the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Nursing and Medicine, and the Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy. This program brings together pre-licensure students and recent graduates from health professions (e.g., medicine, nursing, pharmacy) to learn with, from, and about each other, with the goal of providing learners with interprofessional collaborative practice skills which they will apply in future health care delivery settings. Interested students must apply for the two-semester program. Accepted nursing students are required to sign a letter of commitment to enroll in both the fall and spring semester IPE elective courses.
There are two courses in the Health Systems Sciences program.
The fall course is called Health Systems Science: Interprofessional Collaboration to Improve Medication Safety. Prelicensure nursing students, along with medical residents, pharmacy residents and Advanced Practice Nursing Students, will use an interprofessional framework to examine and apply systems thinking, human factors engineering principles, and high reliability principles to medication safety problems. Students will explore experiences of professions (other than their own) involved in the medication-use process to better engage in communication and decision making in the hospital environment.
The spring course is called Health Systems Science: Fostering Future Leaders for Interprofessional Practice. This course is designed to promote understanding about the importance of prelicensure health professions students (nursing, medical, and pharmacy) working together in providing patient care. Seminar topics include a comparison of the similarities and differences in nursing, medical, and pharmacy education, as well as the importance of interprofessional communication, teamwork and roles and responsibilities in providing safe, high-quality patient care. Students will explore experiences of patients and other professions to better engage in communication and decision making in the community environment.
Program Activities
No exams in either course!
Required attendance at 6 – 8 seminars via Zoom per semester plus asynchronous content. Teaching strategies include student-facilitated learning teams, communication activities, interprofessional shadowing, simulations, patient cases, discussion of relevant research, service-learning and a variety of other interactive learning modalities to develop interprofessional skills. Pre-recorded, asynchronous lectures are also provided.
Hospital-based activities (Fall semester) focused on medication management and medication safety in the context of interprofessional collaborative practice include:
“Walk in another’s shoes” interprofessional experiences
Comprehensive Unit-based Safety (CUSP) meeting participation
Medication reconciliation training with local experts (e.g., pharmacists, pharmacy technicians)
Medication error review and analysis with medical and/or pharmacy residents
Community-based activities (Spring semester) focused on interprofessional collaborative practice include:
Home visits with an older adult health mentor. Students work in interprofessional teams to make four home visits (in person) with their health mentor.
Community service/health promotion event with students from other health care disciplines.
Participation in IPE events (Fall and Spring semester) as an IPE ambassador (Fall) and facilitator (Spring) for events for first year nursing, medical and pharmacy students.
Program Benefits
Students will learn about the distinct roles of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other professional members of the health care team, and will appreciate how these roles contribute to safe patient care delivery through a variety of learning modalities, including discussions, simulations, role play, case studies, shadowing experiences, interprofessional meeting participation in the hospital and community setting. Collaborative learning of nursing, medical, and pharmacy students and recent graduates will include strategies focusing on developing skills needed to enhance interprofessional communication, teamwork, and collaboration.
Application Information
There is a competitive application process for this program. MSN Entry into Nursing Practice students entering their third or fourth semester, medical students in any year and pharmacy students in their third professional year may apply. A maximum of twelve students from each school will be selected.
Contact
If you have questions about the program (students) or if you would like to offer an opportunity to our students (practitioners), please email Dr. Nicole Mollenkopf, Director of Interprofessional Education at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, at [email protected]