The first session of the Core Principles of Interprofessional Practice curriculum, Interprofessional Collaboration: A Key Component to Safety Care was held on Monday, October 5. This year's opening session focused on the role of interprofessional collaboration in improving patient safety.  First year learners from Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Physical Therapy were assigned to a small group composed of 10-12 students from each of the programs and met in several lecture halls with the keynote speech broadcast from Cole Hall. The keynote address: Importance of Teamwork in Patient Safety, was delivered by Sheri VanOsdol, PharmD and Robert Wachter, MD.  Students then broke up into smaller groups were they worked on an activity that enabled them to get to know each other better and then discussed interprofessional communication and collaboration in a medical error case.

• I appreciated the input that everyone in my group had. It was very stimulating to have students from the other professional disciplines discuss the issue of patient safety by dissecting a real life case study that took place here at the university health center. Being able to put our heads together to brainstorm on this case study proved to me that interdisciplinary professional education is very essential and beneficial to patient-centered care.  Everyone had similar ideas and more different ideas which were all applicable to the problem solving and decision making in the case study.  I learned a lot from each and every one who was in my group and during the general concluding debriefing. - Student Comment from Session Evaluation
  

• Meeting other students from different disciplines. It's so important that we have these sessions and make connections so early on as we are not too deep into our respective fields yet.  At the moment, we are still all just first year students and haven't been so molded or indoctrinated in our study.  We now have the chance to interact with each other just as fellow students, human beings, that are all seeking the knowledge in ways to improve the lives of others. It was wonderful to meet new faces and get some different perspectives. - Student Comment from Session Evaluation