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IPE Day yields teamwork, communication lessons

From left, students Emily Leahy, Andrew Olvera, Zackary Baker and Matt Pile take part in IPE Day.

Guided by seven rules, the task was simple: Build the tallest tower in one minute.

For UNMC’s newest students, the building block task — part of UNMC’s Interprofessional Education (IPE) Day — was easier said than done.

More importantly, the lessons learned were profound and career-building.

Through small and large group activities, UNMC’s 600 incoming students spent Wednesday afternoon discovering the significance of team-based care and communicating clearly across all health care disciplines.

"Effective team-based care is an essential skill for all health practitioners," said Devin Nickol, MD, associate dean for IPE and professor in the department of internal medicine. "We were delighted to offer students across the state an opportunity to begin developing this skill at the beginning of their training."

Understanding the role of interprofessional teams and teamwork is important, said Emily Leahy of Omaha, who is part of UNMC’s inaugural class of occupational therapy students. "Having us work together and setting that in our minds from day one is awesome," she said. "Everyone has different communication styles and it’s important to communicate and hold ourselves and others accountable."

Leahy’s small group, which included individuals from nursing, medicine and allied health, bonded while they haphazardly completed the building block task. Once they had debriefed, reviewed the rules, strategized what worked well and what didn’t, they repeated the task with greater success.

And, from that simple, minute-long exercise, they learned the importance of instructions being clear, defined and understood, as well as the importance of trusting the team, while also being willing to question or call out a decision or task when something seems amiss.

For incoming nursing student Emily Schwanebeck of Norfolk, Nebraska, IPE Day reinforced how the patient is a key member of every health care team and that she, and others, each play unique and critical roles. "Nurses interact with patients the most and although we don’t make all the decisions, we enforce them and play an important role in keeping the patient safe."

In addition to the hundreds of students, Dr. Nickol thanked the nearly 100 faculty members statewide who took part in IPE Day. "Educational activities like the fall IPE event are one reason that UNMC’s IPE program is nationally recognized for delivering a high-quality curriculum to advance the health of patients and populations," he said.