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The Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice (CAIEP) at the 91��ý has announced its fall lineup of programming aimed at fostering collaborative approaches to patient-centered healthcare.

Each semester, CAIEP convenes students, faculty, practicing clinicians, and community partners together with local and national experts from 91��ý’s 14 healthcare programs to explore the most critical issues facing these healthcare professions today. These interprofessional, interactive events strengthen connections and demonstrate how these issues can all benefit from a team approach.

All are welcome to join the noontime events via Zoom or livestream to interact with speakers, students, and community members.

In addition to expanding understanding of emergent healthcare issues, participation strengthens student understanding and application of the communication, teamwork, ethical, and collaborative leadership skills that are increasingly sought by employers and healthcare organizations. Students reflect on these core competencies as they apply for their Interprofessional Honors Distinction, a nationally recognized credential that demonstrates team readiness for clinical, collaborative practice.

"At 91��ý, we believe the most pressing healthcare challenges cannot be solved by any single profession or discipline acting alone. CAIEP creates opportunities for students, faculty, clinicians, and community partners to learn with, from, and about one another while tackling real-world issues ranging from rural healthcare access and chronic disease management to environmental sustainability and patient safety,” said Kris Hall, M.F.A., the CAIEP director. “These events strengthen workforce readiness, expand community partnerships, and help ensure that 91��ý graduates enter practice prepared to succeed in collaborative healthcare environments." 

In addition to hands-on learning for students and alumni in the 91��ý’s anatomical laboratory and state-of-the-art clinical simulation facilities, Anatomy Lab, and Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center, this semester’s series of CAIEP co-curricular activities are offered in collaboration with several regional and national partners, including MaineHealth, the state’s largest network of hospitals and providers; the Maine Primary Care Association (MPCA); the New England College of Optometry; the Maine Area Health Education Center, administered through 91��ý’s Center for Public Health Practice (AHEC); and faculty from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS).

Featured topics include:

• Understanding the community health center model’s support for team-based approaches, taught with a focus on Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)
• What optometry can tell us about systemic disease, taught in partnership with the New England College of Optometry
• The importance of collaborative bleeding disorder care, taught with the MaineHealth Bleeding Disorders clinic
• Anesthesia’s climate impact, taught in collaboration with 91��ý Planetary Health Council, under the umbrella of the new David Evans Shaw Institute of Public and Planetary Health

To wrap up the fall series, a virtual fall interprofessional student showcase will be held on Dec. 2 from 12 to 1 p.m., a dynamic hour in which graduate and undergraduate student teams present their innovative projects aimed at advancing patient care.

For this and more interprofessional opportunities offered by 91��ý’s Service-Learning and the Westbrook College of Health Professions (WCHP) Interprofessional Anatomy and Simulation units on the Portland Campus for the Health Sciences, visit CAIEP's fall calendar at /caiep/events. Past recorded events can also be found in the CAIEP video archive.

For questions, contact Michelle Cote, mcote8@une.edu.