Students at the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center are not just learning to work in interprofessional teams; they are leading the way. Clarion, a student-run, staff- and faculty-advised committee, creates and conducts co-curricular, interprofessional experiences for students based on the Institute of Medicine’s six aims for the health care system. A year-long curriculum includes lessons in leadership, teamwork, communication, analytical reasoning, conflict resolution, and business practices.
The year culminates in a case competition designed by students, in which interprofessional teams — including learners from medicine, nursing, pharmacy and administration — work together to analyze a hypothetical case scenario involving a sentinel event, perform a root cause analysis, and propose system changes using a multidisciplinary approach.
The students meet together during “free time” to better understand the skills that each member of the team brings to the care of patients, and to design a response to the case study. After five weeks of analysis, teams present their response before and interprofessional panel of judges from the health system.
After running the competition locally for three years, Clarion took the case competition national in 2005.
02/01/2007
