In the Fall of 2015 we embarked on a collaborative journey together to begin teaching IPE 1100 – Introduction to Interprofessional Health Care at Saint Louis University. As a team, we were determined to provide the best learning environment for over 200 students from more than 10 academic health professions each semester. From the beginning of our teaching partnership, we invested in leveraging technology and innovative teaching strategies in the course. We also worked with interprofessional colleagues to assess student learning outcomes. That collaboration led to the development and validation of a new assessment tool, the Self-Assessed Collaboration Skills (SACS) instrument, and eventually a multi-institutional interprofessional research project with colleagues in the IPE Research Collaborative. What we saw as our everyday calling to serve our students transformed into a larger body of work by improving our teaching, scholarship and service in a most fulfilling trajectory.
The most rewarding part of the past three years are the opportunities it provided for us to make new colleagues and friends through this work. Our scholarly teaching and these special friendships were celebrated on November 8, 2019…a truly good Friday!
Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (OADN) Convention – Louisville, Kentucky
In November 2018, while at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Global Forum for Innovation in Health Professions Education in Washington, DC, we had the opportunity to talk with Donna Meyer, OADN Chief Executive Officer. At dinner, we could not contain our excitement about a specific learning activity in IPE 1100, where we feature the patient’s perspective on the health care experience. In this activity, we utilize a TV show “Frontline for Hope”, developed for St. Louis Children’s Hospital, to illustrate teamwork in health care. After the video, we then ask a patient featured on the show, Cougar Clifford and his mother Colleen, to bring real-life authenticity to the course. Even though we repeat this class session every semester, it consistently provides an emotional and transformational learning experience. Additionally, it has brought about a strong friendship with Cougar and Colleen.
After hearing our story, Donna asked if we would be interested in serving as the keynote speakers at the 2019 OADN Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. We humbly agreed, and arranged for Cougar and Colleen to join us at the event. Upon arriving in Louisville, on Thursday, November 7th we were greeted by a wonderful group of colleagues at the OMNI Hotel.
On Friday, we arrived in the ballroom for the walk through hoping to capture the same transformational excitement that we experienced in every iteration of IPE 1100. At the keynote, we began our presentation providing background on IPE for early learners, the importance of the patient’s voice in health professions education and showed the video, featuring Cougar’s experience after a cervical spine fracture and the subsequent quadriplegia. Cougar and Colleen then entered the hall from backstage to emotional sounds of surprise and a rousing standing ovation from a packed house of nearly 500 attendees.
We spent the next 45 minutes interacting on-stage and answering questions from the audience. The engagement and kindness showed by all at the OADN Convention went beyond anything we could have anticipated.
James H. Korn Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award from the Reinert Center for Teaching and Transformative Learning at Saint Louis University
Teaching a course at a scale like IPE 1100 every semester takes a great team. We served as course coordinators together from 2015-2018. When Katie left for Oklahoma in Summer 2018, Dr. Ginge Kettenbach returned to the class. In addition to the course coordinators, the staff from the SLU Center for Interprofessional Education and Research (CIER) are essential to its success. CIER Director Dr. David Pole and staff members Anne Westemeyer, Linghua Xiao and Doreen Balbuena provide constant support for the faculty and students in the course.
Recognizing that systematic assessment in such a course requires the support of additional colleagues, SLU faculty member Dr. Leslie Hinyard and research assistant Eileen Toomey were instrumental in the development of the SACS instrument. Products of this collaboration were numerous presentations and several peer-reviewed papers. This work continued to mature and evolve as we joined with colleagues from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, the University of New England and Virginia Commonwealth University in forming the IPE Research Collaborative to study introductory IPE experiences across 4 unique contexts and comparing three assessment instruments, including the SACS.
Although we never set out to be recognized for this work in any way, we were excited to learn that we would be honored by the Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning at Saint Louis University for our contribution to teaching and scholarship.
The James H. Korn Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award was established at Saint Louis University in 2006, in recognition of Dr. Jim Korn's many contributions to the research on teaching and learning. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) involves asking questions about student learning and teaching activities; answering those questions by assessing student learning and effectiveness of teaching strategies; and publicly sharing results of this inquiry in a setting that invites peer review.
This award was presented to us, along with colleagues Ginge Kettenbach and Leslie Hinyard. However, since the ceremony was also on Friday, November 8th we participated virtually from the hotel in Louisville.
Making keynote presentations at large conferences and getting an award are wonderful opportunities. However, what makes it most special is that we can share those honors and experiences with our colleagues and friends.
Learn more about the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (OADN)
Learn more about Cougar Clifford, see "Cougar Tracks" on Facebook
Learn more about the IPE Research Collaborative (IPE-RC) on ResearchGate
