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UNMC receives grant to better prepare future health professionals

A grant will help faculty at the University of Nebraska Medical Center better educate Nebraska’s future health professionals.

The Fred J. Kelly Fund, established by Mabel Elizabeth Kelly in memory of her late husband, is an endowed fund to foster research that improves teaching. Administered by the University of Nebraska, the grant will help UNMC develop a new evaluation instrument to measure and improve students’ inter-professional education (IPE) experiences. IPE teaches students the value and practical aspect of working together and is important for patient safety and quality care.

“The complexity and chronic nature of patients’ health problems today requires a team approach,” said Catherine Bevil, Ed.D., professor and director of continuing nursing education and evaluation for the UNMC College of Nursing, who will direct the project. “No one health professional has the breadth of expertise to manage most patients. But collaborating effectively as a team takes learning and practice by all team members, and this is what IPE aims to do.”

She said there are few sound evaluation instruments available to measure inter-professional behaviors. The grant will help UNMC develop its own instrument to accurately measure how UNMC students’ behaviors are changing as a result of their IPE. Traditionally, it’s been difficult to find the time in demanding educational programs to teach students how to communicate and work with other health disciplines.

Improving communication to prevent or reduce patient errors is a goal of inter-professional education.

“For years we’ve made the assumption that someone else will prevent the mistake,” Dr. Bevil said. “Now we’re stepping back, saying we can’t assume everyone knows how to perform as a team. Those of us who graduated years ago were never taught how to function as a team. We’ve had to learn it on our own. But now we’re teaching it through IPE.”

Improvements in the way the health care team communicates should benefit patients and lower costs. Changes in health care financing are being proposed that will affect the system of payment, she said.

“Right now, in most cases, providers are paid for the services they render and the more services they render, the more they are paid,” she said. “The hope is that patient outcomes will become a determinant in how much reimbursement hospitals and providers receive for services rendered. Thus, the emphasis would shift from provision of service to outcomes (effectiveness) of service.”

Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu.