Health-care professionals from several disciplines at the Arizona Health Sciences Center took the stage in DuVal Auditorium to demonstrate the necessity of communicating clearly in a crisis.
Members of the demonstration team included (from left) Mary Lou Monahan, MN, MBA, RN, clinical associate professor, nursing; Christy Roedl, RN, UMC PICU; Marc Berg, MD, associate professor, clinical pediatrics; Jerry Yock, RN, UMC PICU; Heather Cahan, MD, assistant professor, clinical pediatrics; and (not pictured) Brent Hall, PharmD, UMC PICU. The "patient" is a baby simulator provided by Arizona Simulation Technology and Education Center at the UA.
This event was part of a two-hour class in interprofessional health-care communications that was designed for UA medical, nursing and pharmacy students and incorporated into the Cardiovascular, Pulmonary and Renal Systems (CPR) block of the College of Medicine curriculum. Following faculty presentations providing background information, the health-care team enacted a simulated hospital emergency. Applying different communication approaches to the same scenario, they created a graphic portrayal of effective team dynamics and crisis-management skills.
The class, held in February 2007, is one example of a relatively new, interdisciplinary focus at AHSC. The first took place at the beginning of the fall semester, 2006, bringing together all first-year students from the Colleges of Nursing and Medicine and the College of Pharmacy PharmD program, as well as some students from the social work program at Arizona State University. This was a two-session course in “Interprofessional Communications,” in which students were introduced to a new model in health-care practice: a team approach, where each person’s input is acknowledged, and team members show mutual respect for one another. Through culture and teamwork exercises, students became aware of the importance of clear communication to their success.
These classes came about in response to a challenge from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). In an IOM report, Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality, five core competencies are described, one of which is to “work in interdisciplinary teams.” Members of the planning committee for the first course decided that a course in interdisciplinary communication would be the most effective first step toward meeting that challenge, explained planning committee member Richard Herrier, PharmD, from the College of Pharmacy.
Andreas Theodorou, MD, of the College of Medicine, added, “Since most medical errors have been traceable to miscommunication, we want our students to take on the challenge to continually improve communications and learn to work as part of an effective health-care team.”
In November 2007, a third interprofessional exercise focused on disabilities, bringing together students from the UA Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy, the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, the UA College of Law and the ASU School of Social Work to work together on the cases of two actual patients. The exercise was supported by the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, which intends that health-care students have the information they need to provide competent and caring health services to people with developmental disabilities.
Other exercises, held in February 2008 and 2009, focus on the eventuality of an influenza pandemic and the ethical and logistical problems that Southern Arizona could face. Facilitators include faculty from each of the participating colleges – the UA Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy, the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the UA College of Law – as well as officers from Pima and Maricopa County Health Departments, UA Campus Health and University Medical Center