Identifying Areas of Commonality for an Interprofessional Curriculum on the University of Arizona Health Sciences Campus

Abstract

Specific Aims: To identify areas of commonality between the health profession curriculums on the University of Arizona campus, encompassing nursing, pharmacy, medicine, and public health. Methods: This descriptive, cross sectional study used a set of predetermined interprofessional education (IPE) topics including communication, professional ethics, quality assurance and patient safety, evidence based medicine, and public health to compare the core curricula of the colleges. Syllabi for each class were analyzed to determine which, if any, of the topics mentioned previously were covered, and if needed professors were contacted for clarification purposes on their lectures. Main Results: Each of the health professional colleges covers all 5 of the interprofessional topics studied. Evidence based medicine was the most covered IPE topic with 233.5 hours followed by communication (153.5 hours), public health (133.75 hours), quality assurance and patient safety (106.5 hours), and professional ethics (59 hours). Conclusions: The University of Arizona Health Sciences Campus is capable of developing an interprofessional curriculum based on the shared aims amongst the colleges. Although we were unable to identify a specific time slot that could be used to teach IPE curricula, we are able to recommend that an IPE course be implemented in the first professional year for all the colleges as this was the time in which all the colleges spent the most time teaching IPE topics.