AMA Med Ed Innovation Challenge - part 2

FLASHBACK SERIES: Blog posts written during my medical school days at Pacific Northwest University - College of Osteopathic Medicine

by Kim Ha Wadsworth, OMS II

Here is our abstract and link to our video that we submitted to the American Medical Association Medical Education Innovation Challenge (refer to my first post for background info). We are still so happy to have received honorable mention for our proposal! In addition to the AMA recognition, Elia and I presented our proposal to our school's Curriculum Committee as well as the YVIPEC* Steering Committee. In the near future, we hope that elements of our curriculum will be incorporated jointly in the health-related educational institutions in Yakima Valley.
* Yakima Valley Interprofessional Practice and Education Collaborative

Title: University-Wide Interprofessional Community Health Course

Authors/Grad Year: Elia Cole, MPH, OMS II ('18)¹ ~ Adam Nelson, PAS ('16)² ~ Kim Ha Wadsworth, OMS II ('18)³

School:
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine¹
Heritage University²
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine³

Identified Need: Interprofessional education (IPE) has unique potential to offer students an opportunity to embrace academic curiosity and to foster well-educated, humanistic health professionals of the future. It should challenge students to learn about medical ethics, public health, healthcare administration, health law, and global health issues through community-based collaboration across disciplines. It should require students to address health equity, discuss social determinants of health and analyze resulting disease presentation.

Innovation: Recently, there has been a paradigm shift in medical education from strictly lecture and reading-based didactic materials towards experiential learning, interprofessional collaboration, and early introduction to the administrative structure of healthcare. Proposing an innovative framework for a year-long interprofessional, community-based, service-learning curriculum, we aim to develop a hands-on course that allows students to learn concepts of community health while nourishing our spirits through the encouragement of our own innate curiosity.

Implications: Creating a culture of compassion, collaboration, competency, and creativity starts with the early training of healthcare professionals to ultimately produce a workforce with deepened empathy for patients, mutual respect for colleagues outside of their profession, stronger awareness of the local community, and a broader understanding of public health. This project provides an incredible opportunity to actively learn together, with a real potential to make an impact on medical education.

View our 90 sec video here: http://www.powtoon.com/m/cIiHcTcpKU3/1/

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