Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Curriculum and Student Affairs Committee

	Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Curriculum and Student Affairs Committee

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

Guests: Matthew Twohig (MS4), Kristen Anderson (OT student), Kathryn Luedke and Alicia Krueger (undergraduate RN students)

Approval of Minutes: The October 18, 2002, meeting minutes were approved with the following correction: The opening of the Health Sciences Learning Center is scheduled for June 1, 2004.

Committee Discussion with Health Sciences Students on Campus: Several students were able to attend this meeting. The consensus was that current interdisciplinary educational opportunities and interactions on this campus are minimal. OT and PT student organizations have begun joint activities that have moved past just being social to address common issues such as licensing.

The general feeling was that small group discussions, as well as team activities and seminars, would probably work best to foster the goals of interdisciplinary health sciences training. The students seemed to feel that required inter-D courses would be acceptable, but there might be elective options as well. It was felt that either a morning or early afternoon time slot would be preferable for optimal attendance.

There are currently about 140 Medical students, 110 Nursing students, 130 Pharmacy students, 60 Graduate Nursing students, 40 Physical Therapy students, 25 Occupational Therapy students, 30 Physician Assistant students and an unknown number of Social Work students that would potentially be affected.

Some comments were as follows:
--Possibility of Web-based tools to develop large content areas of an interdisciplinary course with smaller teams of students as break out groups.
--Could look for some interdisciplinary activities when students are away from Madison on rotation—Byron was particularly interested in this possibility.
--Aim first for “low hanging fruit” – EMS, Rehab, nursing homes and Hospice as initial targets for this kind of teaching.
--But we need to look at many different ways of accomplishing these goals.
--The nursing students recognized that there is a different focus provided by physician lecturers—Jim Cleary was given as a good example.
--Students giving feedback to faculty is critical.
----How do we advise students to find their own experiences?
--Evaluate possibility of soliciting outside resources for this work, such as Morgridge Center? RWJ Foundation or HRSA?
--Need to start small and have some knowledge of what the other disciplines do.
----Undergraduate research scholars in business, psychology and pre-med evaluating end-of-life care issues are an example.
--Is there a “best practices” model in the field—and does it exist in Wisconsin in other settings?
--Important to educate the faculty on interdisciplinary education – show model behavior during Brown Bag sessions.
----Faculty development on inter-D will be important to support.
----Collaborative teamwork teaching takes time to develop.
----Suggest Medical Education Day breakout session on interdisciplinary education for this coming spring.

Judy Thompson will be convening a scheduling group but she has not heard back from Carolyn Bell in the Medical School as yet. It is hoped that this can occur once the LCME review is completed later this fall.
--Susan suggested that a menu of inter-D options is needed.
--A seminar series would be more attractive if food were offered.
----Advance notice of sessions is critical for their success.
----Consider offering credits for a seminar series.
----It must be high quality.
--Patient or client-centered is key for students to find it valuable.
----Should be able to relate to clinical care in “real life situations.”
--How to communicate with other team members?
----What can be expected from them?
----What is being asked of them?
--Subgroup will work on competition with University of MN
----Study Abroad by RNs to Australia with UW and UMN
--Need to hear from a Social Work representative regarding connections with medicine/health from their perspective
----Consider having a social worker as a member of the IHSC Committee.
--Discussed the formation of committee working groups to address the following issues:
----Clinical challenge competition, a la the UBC example
----Community projects / clinical experience
----Exploring grant resources
----Criteria development
----Faculty development.
--Contact the School of Education regarding resources for interdisciplinary teaching; Department of Education funding for interdisciplinary project at the Waisman Center may be useful; and Morgridge Center funding community/ campus partnerships may be worth investigating
--All courses that are currently cross-listed would be a reasonable starting place to identify existing health sciences courses that may be interdisciplinary; they may not be currently defined as such
--Are there any criteria for interdisciplinary education/training that already exist? (Andrea will check on this.) Question if related to ethnic studies criteria that may have been developed. Many meanings for the term “interdisciplinary”; a new term “trans-disciplinary” was offered as perhaps more descriptive.
--Existing interdisciplinary models in the community include: the Waisman Center, Wingra Clinic (an academic model), East Side Geriatric Clinic, and the GREC at Wm. S. Middleton Veteran’s Hospital.
--Consider including an Interdisciplinary Education Day as part of the opening of the HSLC?
--Plan to invite Cindy Haq and Mark Albanese to a future meeting to discuss interdisciplinary work from their perspectives. Cindy chairs the International Health Committee and Mark has been reportedly investigating interdisciplinary health sciences teaching models.

Interdisciplinary Health Website: We want to be able to use it as an educational tool and it should be completely constructed by December 2002. Some ideas for its use included posting examples from inter-D activities across campus; the Teaching Academy Summer Institute; how to teach in an interdisciplinary fashion; and question of developing an Interdisciplinary Teaching Award in recognition of excellence.

The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, December 20, 2002 at the usual start time.

Agenda for November IHSC Committee Meeting
Rennebohm Hall, Room 1042
8-9:30 AM, Friday, December 20, 2002

1. Approval of Minutes from 11/15/02 meeting
2. Discuss future activity of interdisciplinary-health list-serve
3. Review the goals and activities of the nascent interdisciplinary health website
4. Break out into committee working groups to address specific topics listed above

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