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Interprofessional Student Affairs

March 2004

In January 2003, the Health Sciences Council directed the Interprofessional Health Committee (formerly the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Curriculum and Student Affairs Committee) to include as part of the committee’s charge, “Serving as a forum for addressing issues relating to the education of health professions students, which affect multiple health science units (e.g., immunization requirements, mental health leave).”

In fact, over the years the committee has addressed a variety of issues related to student services concerns common to the health sciences schools. In 1998, Mary Hayney, Mikel Snow, and Marilyn Jenkins, along with representatives of University Health Services, met and gave the committee a report on the blood-exposure and immunization protocols and standards in use among the health sciences schools on campus at that time. 

The committee has spent time discussing how to proceed with the recommendations from the consensus report on blood-borne pathogen disease in health science students (Lexington Report, Journal of American College Health November 2001 available at http://www.heldref.org/html/jach.html) and has documented the results of a meeting of university health service and public health experts in Lexington, KY.

In Spring 2003, the committee chair met individually with representatives of the campus health professions schools to discuss how to use the Lexington Report to update standards here at UW-Madison. Specifically, do the report’s recommendations reflect current practice at UW? What, if any, changes are needed in pre-clinical and/or clinical training?  These discussions resulted in the proposal of several suggestions.

The following student service issues remain on the agenda for the future committee discussions:

• » Potential implications of the federal Caregiver Law
• » The health care and professional needs of students on clerkships in remote locales
• » Professional behavior standards—including mental health challenges
• » Meeting disability accommodations for health sciences’ students

We encourage faculty and students in the health sciences to bring other student affairs challenges and concerns to the attention of committee members. The committee welcomes discussion on such issues and is and willing and able to provide thoughtful deliberation for any faculty, academic staff or student who wishes to bring any such item to the table.