Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Curriculum and Student Affairs Committee

	Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Curriculum and Student Affairs Committee

Present: Ball, Boissonnault, Bowers, Gilchrist, Hyland, Johnson, Kanous, Kirchhoff, Spear (Chair), Thompson, Zahner

Committee member introductions were made to welcome new members Boissonnault, Bowers and Zahner to the initial meeting of the academic year.

The committee heard a brief report from the chair regarding the presentation to the Health Sciences Council of the Spring 2001 committee report. The report was well-received by the Council members who were strongly supportive of the committee’s objectives and who encouraged the committee to develop some concrete and definable objectives for implementing interdisciplinary health sciences education on campus.

The committee discussed the current state of interdisciplinary education in the health sciences on campus:
--There was discussion about holding an inaugural Health Sciences Academic Day in fall 2002—along the lines of the “Medical Education Day” but held on campus to increase student and faculty participation
--It was suggested that curricular concerns could be geared around primary, secondary and tertiary prevention from the perspective of each discipline
--Developing courses that emphasize communication skills and team-building skills among various health science disciplines were mentioned as laudable goals
--There has been discussion on campus about the development of a center for consumer education in HSLC Library

Some examples of interdisciplinary case studies that the committee members see as relevant—the care of the chronic diabetic; dealing with bio-terrorism; preventing antibiotic resistance; and end-of-life care issues

A flyer advertising the interdisciplinary nursing doctoral seminar series on end-of-life care was shared with the committee

This raised the issue of where and how interdisciplinary offerings are posted for the various health science student disciplines

There was discussion about having a health sciences’ interdisciplinary education web page and/or listserve to keep students and faculty informed about these kinds of offerings and activities—would need to discuss available resources with Sybil Better if there was a strong commitment to having this available and a need for DoIT to be involved in such a process

Another option to let students know about such courses was to place an “asterisk” in the course catalog next to interdisciplinary courses offered to all disciplines—along the lines of a “cultural diversity track” defined at some national conferences

It was suggested that it might be time to re-evaluate the present interdisciplinary inventory being offered to students in the health professions—to repeat the survey that Amy Miller conducted for a graduate nursing seminar several years ago

There was extended discussion about class schedules since this was an issue that was addressed in the committee’s recommendations to the Council as a challenge or barrier to interdisciplinary health sciences’
education

Some questions that the committee should address along the lines of class schedules include finding out what’s possible—what’s set in stone already?

What is the standard block of time in HSLC scheduling?—Andrea Ball agreed to ask her contacts if this issue has been resolved or is still open to discussion

It was mentioned that the free campus bus has been a big help with students getting to and from classes in distant locations—particularly for pharmacy students taking courses in central campus and ones in Rennebohm Hall in the “west campus”

This was mentioned in conjunction with the discussion about class times and schedules being an impediment to interdisciplinary activities

The committee then decided to work on three specific Action Steps over the next couple of committee meetings:
• Health sciences education day feasibility
• Interdisciplinary seminar series each semester
• Meeting times and curricular scheduling for the HSLC—and perhaps class schedules for the health science disciplines as a whole if this is feasible

Committee members will select one of these three topics and will break out into work groups to develop specific action plans for each of these topics

Agenda for December IHS Committee Meeting
Rennebohm Hall, Room 1042
8-9:30 AM, Friday, December 21, 2001

1. Please note late semester meeting date!
2. Approval of Minutes from 11/16/01 meeting
3. Entire committee will convene initially along with Dr. Susan Skochelak
4. Committee will break out into three work-groups to formulate action steps

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