Act Now: Nominate an Outstanding Interprofessional Team at UCSF Health

It's time to submit your nominations for the UCSF PIPE 3rd Annual Interprofessional Collaboration Award to recognize outstanding interprofessional teams at UCSF Health. Awardees will be announced in April to coincide with National Interprofessional Healthcare Month. Teams can be clinical teams or systems improvement teams and should be comprised of a least three members from a minimum of three different health professions. At least half of the team members should be employees at UCSF Health, BCH-SF, or BCH-Oakland.

Please consider nominating an interprofessional team by completing this form (read more details). The deadline is March 3. If you have questions or are interested in serving on the Award Selection Committee, please contact [email protected].

Sign Up to Facilitate Interprofessional Standardized Patient Exercise (ISPE)

The ISPE is a collaboration between the schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy; the Physical Therapy program; chaplains; social work; and UCSF and San Francisco State University (SFSU) Nutrition. Participating students are assigned to interprofessional teams of 3-4 students and interview the Standardized Patient (SP) while other team members observe. After the encounters, the team meets to develop a comprehensive care plan. In a faculty-led debriefing session, students reflect on lessons learned from the interprofessional experience.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from exercise participants over the past few years. As we expand the program, we are also recruiting residents for the exercise. The time commitment for facilitators is around three hours for each session, with an optional one-hour facilitator training. Facilitators are encouraged to sign up for multiple sessions if their schedule allows.

There are three simulation sessions per day (8:30 a.m., 11:15 a.m., and 2 p.m.), and all sessions occur during a one-week time frame, from April 28 to May 2, in person at the Kanbar Center at the UCSF Parnassus campus. The optional facilitator orientation is April 22 from 12:10-1 p.m. over Zoom. Thank you for saving these dates in your calendar.

We invite you to sign up by February 21 for this excellent opportunity to work with students and faculty from different health professional schools. Please pass along this opportunity to any of your colleagues who may be interested.

From Learner to IPE Facilitator

Alex Hansen, PT, DPT, is a dedicated clinician, interprofessional educator, and valued team member. In 2019, Alex redirected his learning path from pursuing a PhD in philosophy at UC Berkeley to the UCSF Physical Therapy program (PT). As a PT student, participating in Core Principles of Interprofessional Practice (CPIP) sessions helped him understand the diverse roles within healthcare teams and prepared him for real-world clinical settings. He recalled the Interprofessional Patient Simulation Exercise as one of the most impactful learning experiences as a student. He shared, "The roles I expected the students to fill in the patient encounter setting were not what they were doing. It quickly became clear that we needed to work as a team and contribute to the care plan for the patient."

Now, as a CPIP facilitator, he values the opportunity to represent his profession and contribute to the education of future healthcare professionals. Alex wants others to know "the importance and enjoyment of interprofessional collaboration and that it brings variety, challenges, and a deeper understanding of patient care." His ongoing involvement in CPIP and his efforts to bridge philosophical perspectives with clinical practice highlight his commitment to enhancing interprofessional education and fostering a collaborative healthcare environment. 

Relaunch: Teach for UCSF Certificate Program in Interprofessional Teaching

The Teach for UCSF Certificate program in Interprofessional Teaching has undergone extensive revisions and proudly launched its new format in October 2024. The inaugural session was a resounding success, highly rated by participants for its engaging content and collaborative atmosphere. One participant remarked, "Dynamic instructors using a variety of methods to facilitate knowledge and engagement." Another participant noted, "Interactive, thought-provoking sessions that really promote curiosity and welcoming of all opinions."

The Interprofessional Teaching Certificate is designed for faculty who aim to create and maximize interprofessional learning opportunities across various educational settings. The program’s workshops foster discussion, peer support, and community building among those who teach interprofessionally.

This certificate is open to all faculty, including volunteer faculty, and covers a range of essential topics, including:

• Defining and Facilitating Interprofessional Education (IPE)
• Engaging Learners Across the Health Professions
• Interprofessional Education in Clinical Settings
• Capitalizing on Teachable Moments
• Interprofessional Curriculum Development
• Leadership and Teamwork with Interprofessional Collaboration

To earn the certificate, faculty must complete two days of workshops (Parts 1 and 2). We invite interested faculty to sign up for the upcoming sessions:

• Part 1: February 24, 2025 (in person at Mission Bay)
• Part 2: April 25, 2025

Join us in this exciting journey to enhance interprofessional education and collaboration across UCSF. We look forward to seeing you in our workshops!

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the campus-wide working group that dedicated their time and expertise to develop new workshops and revise existing ones over the past year. This program would not have been possible without their commitment and hard work:

Congratulations to 2024 IPE Champions Circle Members!

Members are recognized for their outstanding level of support for IPE at UCSF in 2023-2024 and consistently contributing towards the goal of ensuring that UCSF graduates are collaborative practice ready. IPE Champions teach seven or more IPE sessions in an academic year. Thank you for your ongoing contributions to interprofessional education at UCSF!

Joint Accreditation Fosters Collaborative Learning

Submitted by Stacey Samuels
Manager, Accreditation, Continuing Medical Education

The UCSF Office of Continuing Medical Education (CME) is excited to advance team-based education through Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE). Since our joint accreditation in the summer of 2023, the UCSF Office of CME has been encouraging the incorporation of collaborative learning between different healthcare professionals into continuing education programs. Offering educational programs aimed at enhancing communication and collaboration among multiple health professions reflects the importance of interprofessional interactions in patient care today.

Providing IPCE credit to educational activities at UCSF is now possible through a cost-effective, streamlined process. By offering IPCE, the UCSF Office of CME hopes to promote a strong structural system with which we, as a community, can enhance team performance and bring patient care to the next level. The Office of CME is actively working to update staffing and technology to optimize the submission and review of new educational activities. While we are not currently accepting new activity applications at this time, you can learn about basic planning tips and tools on our accreditation webpage and anticipate the preliminary questions you will need to answer or submit a New Ideas form if you’d like the Office of CME to contact you once we begin accepting applications to offer new programs for continuing education credit. Existing, accredited continuing education programs may immediately opt to offer IPCE when educational activities are designed by and for an interprofessional health care team. 

Spotlight on Interprofessional Collaboration Scholar (IPCS)

The IPCS program is an opportunity for UCSF health professions students to engage in further interprofessional collaboration activities and scholarship through small group work, simulation, projects, scholarship, and interprofessional clinical immersion experiences. Our IP Scholars may be able to provide some support to your work or participate in your activities to meet IPCS program requirements. If you are seeking a mentoring or coaching opportunity, please contact [email protected]. Thank you for directing any students who would be interested in joining the IPCS program to the IPCS CLE website.

We are proud to highlight Siavash Zamirpour, a UC Berkeley-UCSF JMP medical student.

"I have benefited from several interprofessional experiences in my medical education and am energized when I have the opportunity to engage with other healthcare professionals. I participated in the Clarion National Case Competition in 2022, in which I worked with students in the schools of nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry. Our project focused on addressing burnout by creating a framework for promoting community and belonging in healthcare. During the IPCS program, I have been able to round out my interprofessional experience by working with a respiratory therapist and an interprofessional geriatrics team. As a result of these experiences, I embrace the values of team-based communication and a collaborative approach to inquiry in both my practice of medicine and my scholarship."

Celebrating Our Work at PIPE!

We are excited to share the PIPE End-of-Year Report for 2023-2024 with you. It has been a productive year and we are proud of our accomplishments. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions and feel free to share the report with others.