Interprofessional education (IPE) is not a new concept at UCI but the union between public health and pharmaceutical sciences is more novel. Sora Park Tanjasiri, DrPH, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics with the UCI Program in Public Health, along with colleague Shu Farmer, PhD, a UCI lecturer of public health, joined forces to bring together nearly 100 graduate-level students from both disciplines to address the most pressing public health crisis of their generation: COVID-19. With support from two experienced public health teaching assistants, Emilia Fields and Lewis Simon, the week-long course featured a joint lecture and case study presentation focused on hypothetically managing and even stopping the COVID-19 pandemic. The course culminates with small group work to produce a paper with analyses and recommendations.
In the academic setting, public health can serve as a catalyst for IPE activities as a range of health sciences students are increasingly interested in chronic disease prevention and prevalence reduction. Through various practicum experiences, public health students are exposed to the impact of team-practice work, which is crucial in the field. The appealing premise of IPE is that once healthcare professionals begin to work together in a collaborative manner, patient care will improve. As we have seen the ramifications that COVID-19 has done to our public health infrastructure, healthcare systems and our community’s health, IPE collaboration is needed now more than ever as we enter a new world of public health.
Public health practitioners have showcased how integral interprofessional collaboration is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. From examples between social work, nursing, and pharmacy, public health practitioners served as a bridge providing knowledge and expertise to improve care. Much like pharmacists who stepped into a new role during the COVID-19 pandemic by serving as public health stewards to educate members of the public through their clinical care of COVID-19 patients. The silver lining to the pandemic is evident through these examples and how important interprofessional education is to guide future innovation.
As public health students, we’ve read and studied about the importance of interprofessional collaboration, but this course is actually providing us with firsthand experience collaborating across disciplines.”
– Sarah Khoylow, a first-year Master of Public Health student
“Even at this stage of my training, it’s evident how important it is to work together with public health professionals so we are not operating in silos and can learn from each other’s expertise,” says John Farah, a 2nd year student pharmacist in Doctor of Pharmacy program.
Sarah Khoylow, a first-year Master of Public Health student says, “as public health students, we’ve read and studied about the importance of interprofessional collaboration, but this course is actually providing us with firsthand experience collaborating across disciplines.”
Farah, Khoylow and the rest of their colleagues are working together to develop campaigns to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the hardest hit communities, including rural, elderly, African American, Latinx and Native Hawaiians. Both disciplines are bringing their expertise and knowledge to the table so they can help each other be best prepared for interdisciplinary work once they join the workforce.
