Building a Community of Health Professionals to Establish a Shared Learning Experience in Psychiatry and Substance Use Disorders for Health Professions Students

Preparing learners to overcome barriers to team-based care, however, requires that the healthcare professionals from whom they learn model appropriate behaviors. [...]an interprofessional education course must also bring together diverse professionals who practice collaborative care. Since a Community of Practice consists of individuals with a genuine passion for a topic who are interested in collaboration, one outcome could be the modeling of interprofessional behaviors, including sharing ideas and experiences, learning from one another, deepening expertise, exhibiting mutual respect, and building innovations [10]. [...]we set expectations for all students and developed a course blueprint. Medical, physician assistant, and pharmacy students completing their clerkship at Duke University Hospital worked together as part of an interprofessional team of health care providers, including psychiatrists, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, social workers, psychologists, and pharmacists.