ETSU Earns State, National Recognition For Interprofessional Education

From East Tennessee State University:

JOHNSON CITY — East Tennessee State University’s Interprofessional Education and Research (IPER) program recently earned two statewide awards recognizing its work in championing and cultivating interprofessional education and practice.

The Tennessee Interprofessional Practice and Education Consortium (TIPEC) presented the People’s Choice Award and the Poster Award to ETSU for a presentation showcasing ETSU’s relationship with interprofessional teams during the Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic that occurs each November in Gray.

Interprofessional education is rooted in students learning and practicing team-based, collaborative care in order to improve health outcomes for patients.

“The annual RAM clinic in Gray is a true representation of team-based care, as students and faculty from across ETSU’s health sciences colleges work with other volunteers from the community to provide free health care to underserved patients in our region,” said Dr. Brian Cross, director of Interprofessional Education at ETSU.

The award-winning poster, titled “Growing Community Engagement and Aligning Curriculum,” was presented by Dr. Emily Flores, associate professor of Pharmacy Practice at Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, and Dr. Caroline Abercrombie, director of Community Engagement for Interprofessional Education and Research Programs at ETSU.

Cross and Dr. Alicia Williams, assistant director of Interprofessional Education and Research Programs, were co-authors of the poster presentation.

“IPE is not new at ETSU, but it continues to grow in numbers of participants and in programming each year,” Cross said. “I am very proud of these awards our team received, which are an acknowledgement of all of the people who have been working so hard for many years to develop this program. These recognitions validate what is happening in IPE at ETSU, and I look forward to the continued growth and notoriety of our program – both on a state and national level.”

In addition to the TIPEC awards, ETSU will be showcased nationally at the Nexus Summit 2021, which is the national meeting for IPE sponsored by the national Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education.

All seven of ETSU’s submissions for Nexus were accepted and will be presented during the national summit, which takes place virtually over six days in September and October. ETSU’s presentation topics range from combining an interprofessional street medicine outreach program with community partners to provide COVID-19 immunizations to persons experiencing homelessness to an exploration of empathy, grace and equity in interprofessional practice.

This year, faculty in ETSU’s IPER program have authored or co-authored several journal articles that promote interprofessional education. They include: “Development of a State-Wide IPE Faculty Toolkit,” published in the Journal of Allied Health; “From Opportunity to Necessity: Development of an Asynchronous Online Interprofessional Learning Experience,” published in the International Journal of Health Sciences Education; and “Meta-techniques for faculty development: A continuous improvement model for building capacity to facilitative in a large interprofessional program,” published in the Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice.

To learn more about ETSU’s Interprofessional Education and Research program, visit www.etsu.edu/ahsc/ipe/.

This press release was produced by East Tennessee State University. The views expressed are the author's own.