Students Learn How to Interact With Other Health Professions in Delivering Patient Care

Social Work Students Learn How to Interact With Other Health Professions in Delivering Patient Care

During the course of the UW spring semester, eight students from the DOSW joined students from the disciplines of Pharmacy, Medical Education, and the School of Nursing, to better understand how these health professions interact with caring for patients. Several Interprofessional Education (IPE) events take place during the school year, with at times over 70 students in attendance along with faculty facilitators.

IPE is described as occasions when students and educators from two or more professions in health and social services learn together as part of their professional training with the purpose of cultivating collaborative practice for providing client or patient-centered healthcare.

An example of how to help students understand interactions between different health professions involving patient care, students at one of the IPE events were presented with a hypothetical clinical situation involving a patient with both physical and possible addition disorders.

Students were asked how various stages of treatment would be administered and when. This enabled all disciplines in attendance, Social Work, Pharmacy, Medical Education and Nursing, to better understand their roles in caring for this patient.

“I am so proud of what they did and how they contributed during our IPE today,” says DOSW Assistant Lecturer, Kym Codallos, speaking about Social Work students attending the IPE event. “All I have to say is WOW! There was even a point where I was going to mention about allowing the patient to decide if she wants to quit smoking, and Kate took the words right out of my mouth! Kate, I couldn’t have been prouder in that moment. You all slayed it out there. We truly have amazing students! Thank you for participating today and representing us out there.”

Codallos is a member of the UW College of Health Sciences IPE. Committee members in addition to Codallos, include Dana Govaerts, Assistant Clinical Professor with WWAMI Medical Education; Antoinette Brown, Coordinator of Experiential Education with the School of Pharmacy; Esther Gilman-Kehrer, Clinical Associate Professor; and Nancy McGee, Clinical Associate Professor with the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing.

Along with Kym Codallos (center), Social Work students attending the IPE event included from left: Skye Avalon Skinner, Kate Norman, Nikki Ferri, and Madison Strohschein. They are all juniors in the BSW Program. At far right, MSW student, Joshua Wells, discusses clinical outcomes of patient care with students from other healthcare disciplines.