Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development Project Phase 3

1. Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development ProjectPhase 3 Ken Morales ICDP Project Coordinator Brown University, Class of 2009 www.centralriahec.org

2. What is an Interdisciplinary Curriculum? Interdisciplinary curriculum is the involving of researchers, students, and teachers in the goals of crossing traditional boundaries and integrating several academic disciplines, professions, or technologies, along with their specific perspectives, in the pursuit of a common task. A common goal of understanding unites the various methods and acknowledges a common or shared subject or problem, even if it spreads to other disciplines. www.centralriahec.org

3. Why do we need it? • In the health professions, there has been a call from several fronts for the incorporation of interdisciplinary teamwork to help address 21st century problems of medical care: • The Institute of Medicine has called for the training of health care students in interdisciplinary methods. • A growing body of research points to the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of interdisciplinary teams in health care. • Interdisciplinary teamwork has been cited as a way to reduce medical error. www.centralriahec.org

4. What is the ICDP? The Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development Project (ICDP) was started in the summer of 2006 at criAHEC. Phase I: Students completed a literature review, cited a need for interdisciplinary training in Rhode Island health care professions schools, and drafted an education module that could be adapted to existing programs. Phase II: In the summer of 2007, the conference “Teamwork: Your Patient's Life Depends on It” was organized, including students and faculty from RIC, URI, and Brown's schools of nursing, medicine, social work, and pharmacy. www.centralriahec.org

5. Goals of ICDP Phase III Phase III of the project was launched this summer. The main goal of this project was to extend the work of the previous two phases and bring them to fruition: Phase I showed the need for change in health care education. Phase II demonstrated that health care students and faculty were interested and willing to participate in interdisciplinary initiatives. Phase III has as its goals the implementation ofopportunities for curricular change at Rhode Island's health care professional schools, and the implication of the students and faculty at these institutions in order to ensure that this change has a lasting presence. www.centralriahec.org

6. ICDP Phase III • In order to reach these goals: • I participated in a class offered this summer at Rhode Island College entitled Interdisciplinary Teamwork in Health and Human Services. This class gave me some of the background knowledge of approaches and methodologies in the science of interdisciplinary teamwork, as well as practical experience working in health care teams. • Meetings with faculty from the University of Rhode Island, Brown University, Rhode Island College, and Salve Regina were organized to reach a collaborative decision on the changes that need to be made at these institutions, and how curriculum can be adjusted to allow students to gain the necessary experience of ID teamwork before they enter the work force. www.centralriahec.org

7. ICDP Phase III What is in store? This Spring, our working group on the ICDP Phase III is planning on holding a symposium aimed at getting key faculty, student groups and student leaders at our target institutions to recognize the necessity of an interdisciplinary curriculum and to get their input and collaboration on the project. Later in that same academic semester, a pilot project involving students from the different health professions schools is being organized to give these students an opportunity to gain practical experience of working on a ID health care team on standardized patients, to show the utility of such exercises, and develop a program like this that will carry on. www.centralriahec.org

8. Thank you! If you are interested in participating in or learning more about the ICDP Phase III, please contact me at: ken.b.morales@gmail.com And I will be happy to get you involved. www.centralriahec.org