The interdisciplinary incubator January 24, 2017
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PATIENT CARE PROJECTS
ETSU student pharmacists provided free health screenings and education at the Johnson City Farmers Market in July.
The interprofessional culture at the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy is continually growing and adapting to promote collaboration between multiple student organizations and colleges across the university. The ETSU APhA–ASP patient care committees are constantly looking to collaborate with other professional students to improve how we provide patient care in our community. This collective of future health care professionals creates an enormously important incubator that allows students to grow in a way that encourages appreciation of other disciplines, as well as an understanding of how everyone can work collaboratively to improve patient care.
An impact on our community community Interprofessional work through our APhA–ASP Chapter permeates through the entire organization. In collaboration with ETSU Quillen College of Medicine student physicians, our chapter’s Operation Heart and Operation Diabetes committees have built and strengthened interprofessional relationships outside of the classroom setting. The foundation of our collaboration started in the fall of 2015 through partnering together at the local Farmer’s Market to provide free health screenings and education to market goers. Interprofessional interactions are what made this experience so unique for our committee and chapter. Additionally, Operation Heart and Operation Diabetes have partnered together in support of the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk for the past 2 years, with a strong turnout in support of health education in the community. At both the health fairs and walk events, student pharmacists and student physicians come together to provide blood pressure and diabetes education for patients from diverse backgrounds. Operation Diabetes also partnered with the ETSU College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Sciences to provide diabetes education classes to the community at a local federally-qualified health center. Our Generation Rx Committee collaborated with the ETSU College of Public Health to develop a naloxone training protocol for current and future health care providers. By including students from the colleges of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing, Generation Rx highlighted the severity of the drug abuse epidemic in the Appalachian region by providing a movie screening of “Oxyana.” Operation Immunization demonstrated an important role of the pharmacist to student physicians by hosting a clinic providing flu vaccinations. This outreach has enabled students to have conversations about the increasing roles of pharmacists in a community setting and to build relationships with other future health care providers.
Benefits of collaboration collaboration With the ever-changing landscape of the current health care system, some of the answers that aim to fix the quality of patient care point unequivocally to a team-based care approach. Starting at the educational level with team-based care is one of the most effective ways to develop a mutual respect and appreciation for what each member of the health care team does for the patient. Alicia Hsu, a second-year student physician at the ETSU Quillen College of Medicine, said, “Health care is moving toward an interprofessional, teambased model of patient-centered care. Each health care professional is a different puzzle piece in a patient’s overall health. Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and the many other health care professionals are each an expert in their own field and only through collaboration as a team will we be able to give a patient the best, most complete care possible. ” The experiences made possible through the curriculum and enhanced through our APhA–ASP Chapter initiatives set a foundation and give rise to a hands-on approach to interprofessional collaboration.
Future opportunities opportunities The importance of interprofessional teamwork is emphasized throughout our curriculum and actively engaging in collaborative events helps all students live out that vision. The shifting emphasis to a patient-centered approach in health care is exciting. Here at ETSU, we believe that our efforts through interprofessional collaboration are preparing us for a model of best practice in the future. Through our APhA–ASP Chapter, we have had a positive impact on thousands of people in our community and we hope to continue to grow this outreach through interprofessional partnerships. Spencer Hodges is a third-year, and Wade Tugman is a final-year, PharmD candidate at the East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy.
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