Healthcare Workforce Partnership 
Spring 2025
Interprofessional Patient Simulation Experience
* each student group is distributed across all four sessions
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Tuesday, February 11, 2025 – Remote – 4:00 – 6:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 12, 2025 – Remote – 4:00 – 6:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 19, 2025 – Remote – 4:00 – 6:00 PM
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Thursday, February 20, 2025 – Remote – 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Interprofessional teams of students will review an ambulatory patient case collaboratively and strategize the roles for each profession. Students will interact remotely (similar to a telehealth encounter) with a standardized patient to gather information based on their professional roles. Students will then develop a team-based care plan and deliver to the patient and participate in a debrief discussion to review the advantages and challenges of team-based decision making in patient care.
*One faculty facilitator is needed per every 8 students attending
Aphasia Virtual IPE Program
* attendees must participate in both sessions
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Wednesday, February 26, 2025 – Remote – 6:00 – 7:00 PM
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Wednesday, March 5, 2025 – Remote – 6:00 – 7:30 PM
Interdisciplinary groups of students will participate in guided discussions, facilitated by students of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP). These SLP students will have read Identity Theft, a powerful book by Dr. Debra Meyerson, co-authored with her son, Danny Zuckerman. The book delves into the often-overlooked emotional and identity-related aspects of recovery and rebuilding life after a stroke. While Identity Theft centers on Dr. Meyerson’s own experiences, it also reflects her expertise as a social scientist by incorporating stories from dozens of stroke survivors, along with insights from family members, friends, colleagues, therapists, and doctors she has interviewed. This rich diversity of perspectives, combined with Dr. Meyerson’s deep understanding of identity, offers invaluable insights for interdisciplinary professionals involved in stroke recovery. The program will culminate with a presentation by Dr. Meyerson and her husband, Steve Zuckerman. Interested in learning more? Check out the blog and read the Stroke Onward 2023 Annual Report.
Participation by invite only.
- View Recording: Aphasia Virtual IPE Program 2021
- View Recording: Aphasia Virtual IPE Program 2022
- View Recording: Aphasia Virtual IPE Program 2024
PV-IPEC IPE Health Fair at Baystate Place (Beacon Communities)
Dates TBD
PV IPEC hosts an interprofessional health fair at Baystate Place, a part of Beacon Communities. Nursing, speech language pathology, occupational therapy, dental assistant, nutrition, pharmacy, and other health science students will provide an array of services including: health education, assessments and evaluation.
Contact Peta-Gaye Johnson pjohnson@masshirehcwb.com
PV IPEC Interprofessional Poverty Simulation
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Monday, April 14, 2025 – Western New England University – 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
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Thursday, April 24, 2025 – Springfield Technical Community College – 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Could you survive a month in poverty?
The Poverty Simulation provides participants with the opportunity to assume the role of a low-income family member living on a limited budget. The experience is divided into four 15-minute sessions, each of which represents one week in which you must provide for your family and maintain your home. As one participant commented, “This poverty simulation dramatically demonstrates how much time and energy many families have to give just to survive from day to day. It quickly dispels the myth “that people would do fine if they would only go out and get a job!”
Ambulatory Care Simulation
Thursday, April 10, 2025 – Western New England University – Multiple Sessions
This interdisciplinary healthcare simulation will take place in an ambulatory care simulation setting at Western New England University, where teams of 5-6 members from various health professions will collaborate under the guidance of faculty facilitators. The session will focus on teamwork, roles and responsibilities, values, and interprofessional communication in alignment with IPEC Core Competencies. Participants will clarify the roles of physician assistants, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and occupational therapists in team-based care while developing effective communication skills for collaborative practice. The simulation aims to address and resolve misconceptions about different health professions (IPEC RR1), foster the development and implementation of patient care plans (IPEC RR2&3), and encourage critical analysis of team interactions for continuous improvement (IPEC CC1&7). The structured format includes a pre-brief, simulation, and debrief, with faculty facilitators providing guidance throughout. Five teams will work simultaneously, and sessions will be repeated four times throughout the day.
Other Projects
Fall 2025
PURCH Population & Community Health Clerkship at UMMS-Baystate
Date: TBD
This is a program of UMass Medical School and Baystate Health Population Based Urban & Rural Community Health Program.
The Population & Community Health Clerkship (PCHC) is a team-based, interprofessional, community engaged experience. This is a two week, interprofessional, immersive community engagement with CBO’s, taking a look at healthcare delivered outside of traditional hospital based settings and rooted in service learning with mini projects addressing specific community needs and advocacy, while fostering student learning and development. Students are placed in small groups directed by academic and community preceptors from a range of professions and disciplines. Each team’s experience is unique. The 2 weeks culminates with project presentations and Advocacy pitches. The overarching goal of the PHC is to provide relevant real-world context as students expand their understanding of public and population health concepts. In this clerkship, students will:
- Collect, synthesize, and explain relevant population-level data
- Identify the interprofessional team members who care for the population
- Explore ways organizations advocate for, and with, a population to improve social and structural determinants of health
- Apply knowledge toward meaningful service in a community
At a glance, the PURCH PCHC’s are listed in the PURCH Catalogues: one and two. These catalogs give you a look at the wide range of Social Drivers of Health the PCHC projects can cover and you will also see completed project description forms each team will need to complete.
Lastly, roles and responsibilities of the host team are listed here Roles and Responsibilities for PCHC Faculty.docx – Google Docs
How to get involved or register students, contact: Lisa Clinton (Lisa.Clinton@baystatehealth.org)
Student Blog: Beyond Medicine: A Deeper Dive into Health Disparities and Social Determinants of Health
Health Equity in Action: Implicit Bias Training
DEI cannot be achieved without implicit bias training. Discussions are insufficient because the action is unconscious. Changes cannot happen without training. A greater emphasis should be placed on health equity; it requires equally as much attention as clinical training. Implicit bias is predictive and preventive.
Interprofessional Viewing of the “To Err is Human” Documentary
October 7, 2025 – in person at TBD AND October 22, 2025 (remote)
Your program or facility is invited to participate in the Interprofessional Viewing of the “To Err is Human” Documentary. Sessions are scheduled on the evenings of October 1st (in person) / October 26th (remote). Multiple sessions are planned to accommodate all participants from all interested programs and facilities. In order to create interprofessional groups, we request that programs and facilities divide attendees across the two sessions, if possible. There will be a separate breakout session for practitioners.
Context – While there has been significant progress over the past decade in improving patient safety, medical errors continue to be prevalent in both acute care settings and ambulatory care settings resulting in deaths, injuries, and healthcare expenditures in the United States. Massachusetts is no different as the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety reported in 2019.
Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPCP) has been proven to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and improve job satisfaction. IPCP involves teamwork. However in order to function as a team, members need to maintain a climate of mutual respect and shared values, understand the roles and responsibilities of the members, communicate effectively, and apply the principles of effective teamwork. This movie viewing and discussion are aimed at increasing your awareness of medical errors, considering solutions, and learning from, with, and about your current and future healthcare team members.
PV-IPEC IPE Health Fair at Baystate Place (Beacon Communities)
Date: TBD
PV IPEC hosts an interprofessional health fair at Baystate Place, a part of Beacon Communities. Nursing, speech language pathology, occupational therapy, dental assistant, nutrition, pharmacy, and other health science students will provide an array of services including: health education, assessments and evaluation.
Contact Peta-Gaye Johnson pjohnson@masshirehcwb.com
REB - REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT BOARD OF HAMPDEN COUNTRY, INC.
