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UGI Initiative Workgroup Meeting Notes

November 3, 2017

Attendees: Michelle Butina (MLS), Brendan O’Farrell (IHRC), Randa Remer-Eskridge (OSA), Jamie Warren (HHS), Sarah Kercsmar (CLM), Janice Kuperstein (Resource), Hanna Hoch (AT), Phillip Gribble (AT), Leslie Woltenberg (PA), Becky Unites (Resource- Assessment), Carl Mattacola (Resource- Dean’s Office), Karen Badger, (Facilitator)

1)10/27/2017 Sub-group summaries and meeting notes/question posting- a summary of the meeting on 10/27/2017 and related attachments have been posted on the UGE Initiatives Webpage. Also, the questions outlined in point 2 below have been posted as an additional means to gather faculty and professional staff responses.

2)Discussion: Mission of CHS Undergraduate education- All undergraduate programs submitted responses to the questions regarding outcomes and competencies they considered common across programs:

Questions:

  1. What competencies should CHS undergraduate students be proficient in? What are the desired outcomes? (Review feedback to determine: What of these are shared across programs?
  2. What undergraduate student competencies, abilities, characteristics, experiences are valued/expected by graduate/professional programs? By employers?
  3. What can professional programs/employers count on in terms of skills, characteristics, competencies of our graduates at the College level?

See attachment Common Undergraduate Competencies across CHS UG Programs for responses.

GOALS: (1) Identify a shared set of UGE outcomes, competencies, expectations relevant to students in all CHS programs and important to professional/graduate programs and future employers, (2) Develop a UGE mission, set of competencies, value set at the College level for UGE.

We reviewed the attachment and discussed. Professionalism and ethicsemerged as a priority competency and one that the Workgroup considered as a grounding foundational competency on which others would be built/integrated.

Highlights of this discussion included:

  • Acknowledgment of too frequent displays of unprofessional, disrespectful behavior in the classroom despite the current level of intentional and well-thought out exposure of students to expectations.
  • Expectations of students need to be set up early- at the College and program levels and in the classroom. Many good things in place now—discussed need to expand these and move to the College level- introduce at orientation and reinforce in the classroom, clinical practicums consistently.
  • We need to develop a culture where assertion of these expectations of students occurs universally in the classroom and does not vary from faculty to faculty in order to:
  • Model the behaviors we wish to see from our students
  • Develop a culture of professionalism in which students can be immersed that has clear expectations, accountability, and means through which behaviors, values, attitudes, can be learned or strengthened
  • Develop students’ professional behaviors with intentionality, providing them class time to apply learning, reflect on their experiences (in classroom, practicum, other) to assimilate learning, and connect classroom/college professionalism and ethics expectations to those required of a healthcare professional
  • All agreed that we need to elevate this as a priority at the College-level with all faculty engaged and actively and consistently supporting professional expectations in the classroom:
  • Specific challenges in the classroom in teaching professionalism and ethics were discussed:
  • Large classes present a challenge in holding students accountable to expectations
  • We are not always clear in the classroom about what behaviors are expected—and/or we do not address unacceptable behavior consistently when it occurs, which undermines our efforts to communicate its importance
  • Students may not be aware of expectations—or may not consider meeting professionalism expectations to be a priority due to lack of consequence or accountability, and/or unevenness of the expectations
  • Students may observe unprofessional, disrespectful behaviors in their clinical placements- need to ensure that students have course time to engage in reflection and process their experiences. Also—educating preceptors about CHS’s emphasis on specific professional behaviors may help with accountability of student in the field and role modeling.
  • Inconsistencies among faculty and courses create challenges in providing students with positive role-models, developing their professional and ethical behaviors, and in holding them accountable—all faculty need to be on board across all programs, all levels.
  • Members agreed that an overall culture shift needed to occur with all faculty and professional staff on board:
  • UGE Initiative Workgroup members will share the competencies generated by our group, along with the IPE collaborative competencies, for feedback and discussion. Goal is to reach a consensus about a set of outcomes/competencies that faculty can adopt across programs and will also role-model. (IPE competencies—particularly Competency 1 as it relates to professionalism and ethics—had particular relevance).
  • The Workgroup will reconvene to finalize a draft of competencies/outcomes (and see if a commitment can be made to the IPE competencies) across programs
  • Final product will be forwarded to Gilson (Faculty Council chair) for their review and discussion.
  • Note: we would want to move to a positive, growth-supporting culture in which faculty and professional staff demonstrate the outcomes and IPE competencies and students learn and practice them.
  • Additional responses to consider also discussed:
  • Develop a professionalism statement and expectations to include in every CHS syllabus to communicate professionalism culture and expectations
  • Investigate how to hold students’ accountable to the information and behaviors in classes(e.g., testing, demonstration, tied to a grade and tied to professional/graduate study and future career; professional/graduate faculty participate in UG class to communicate its importance and the role of UG faculty’s assessment of students’ level of professionalism.)
  • Sarah K. was noted as having a positive way of discussing professionalism and behavior expectations, which she did in new student orientation- group agreed it would be helpful to hear her presentation.
  • Decision made to follow-up this discussion with a charge to a sub-group to draft ‘best practice’ ways through which professionalism and ethics could be taught in the classroom and a supportive culture established. This fits into the Professionalism aspect of our work—Michelle Butina co-facilitates this topic area and accepedt this recommendation to include in scope of work.

3)Interprofessional Education: developing IPE Identity–discussed the Interprofessional Education and the core competencies for IP practice (see attachment IPEC 2016 update) as a unifying framework of competencies and pedagogy for CHS undergraduate education (extending into the professional/graduate programs).

  1. Reviewed an IP socialization framework (See pdf article by Khalili et al., attached). Anticipatory socialization phrase is relevant for freshman and exploratory/pre-major students). Members saw value in utilizing this process and focus- will read materials and discuss with colleagues and will further discuss next meeting.
  2. Interprofessional Core Competencies were reviewed- the outcomes identified by programs and discussed in the meeting are consistent with these IP competencies. The IP Core Competencies attached will be shared with colleagues for comment and to gage level of acceptance.
  3. We reviewed the program generated outcomes and the IP core competencies in relation to the CHS UGE Undergraduate Emphasis categories (see related attachment) for goodness of fit. One change was made to the CHS UGE Undergraduate Emphasis categories- cultural competence and cultural humility was changed to cultural and inter-cultural humility.
  4. Example of a Interprofessional Education in a College of Health Sciences shared:

IPE Student Learning Outcomes

IPE Strategic plan

4)ICF Social Determinants of Health- discussed using this as a framework for conceptualizing work in healthcare with patients and families in CHS UGE. It utilizes a universal and common language and a framework that is holistic and recognizes social determinants of health. It is already used in the professional/graduate programs and would allow for vertical integration of the framework in UGE and Professional/Grad programs. Will be further discussed next meeting—readings will be sent to committee members to create a common ground for discussion.

5)Next meeting: November 10th, 9:30-10:30, Room TBA.