Interprofessional Service Learning Reflection Paper

After completing the Interprofessional Service Learning modules I feel as I have gained more knowledge, experience, and values that I can take into my future professional career. IPE stands for interprofessional education and collaborative practice which per research studies are found to be very important when teaching pre-professional and professional graduates the importance of an interprofessional team, patient safety, ethics, and behavioral change.

The first module we completed gave us an introduction and insight to the world and research behind the pros for implementing and educating health care professionals about IPE. The model specifically Grand Valley uses is the MIPERC model which is meant to be patient centered and has expected educational and health care outcomes for faculty and students to follow. The multiple benefits of IPE included real world experience, learning, and understanding other professions, reducing mortality and hospital errors, and improving the interprofessional team

An interprofessional team is one that is intentionally created to collaborate, everyone has a collective identity mindset, and respects each member of the team’s decisions and problem-solving methods. I learned the most in the developing the team steps. When you address problems as a team, collaborate with your coworkers, and put into action a plan to fix it works better than just one person making executive decisions. I have personal experience where we have implemented this at the hospital. Within the first 30 minutes of my shift, I meet with day shift nurses and nurse techs to go over the day, the goals they accomplished, what still needs to be accomplished, and important things we need to know. Having a team huddle has incorporated the IPE module into my work life already which I find to be very effective and helpful especially when we must keep track of several different patient’s