InterProfessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP)

A: IPE occurs when members or learners from two or more professions learn with, from, and about each other to enable effective collaboration and ultimately improve health outcomes and services.

Reference: "InterProfessional education (IPE) are occasiosn when members or learners (e.g., students, residents, and/or health professionals) of two or more professions learn with, from, and about each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes and services." (from: https://www.napractice.org). 

A: IPCP is the extension of IPE into practice, occurring when multiple health professionals from different backgrounds provide comprehensive services by working and collaborating with other professionals, patients, and communities to deliver the highest quality of care across all settings.

Reference: "InterProfessional collaborative practice occurs when multiple health professionals from different backgrounds provide comprehensive services by working and collaborting with other health professionals, patients/clients, their carers, and communities/populations to deliver the highest quality of care across settings; this is an extension of interprofessional education into practice environments." (from: https://www.napractice.org). 

A: IEHE is urgently needed to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all people, even during disasters. Achieving this triple aim (health, wellness, longevity) requires intentionally scaling up the environmental health workforce, including public health nurses and environmental engineers, as part of the convergence toward planetary health.

Reference: "... The modern healthcare continuum is committed to the triple aim of health, wellness, and longevity. To achieve this aim, intentional policies and practices should provide UHC (universal health care) for all people, wherever and whenever, without financial hardship. In our view, this requires scaling up the beneficial impacts of the environmental health workforce (including public health nurses, environmental engineers, environmental scientists and specialists, including health). To achieve scale, we encourage an intentional approach to interprofessional environmental health education as part of convergence towards the transdisciplinary practice of planetary health with an eye toward a healthier future for humanity and the planet we all share. In our view, there is an urgent need for interprofessional environmental health education and continuing education for existing practitioners to achieve UHC, even in disasters."

(from: Oerther, D.B. S. Oerther, and D.T. Dyjack. (2024). "The Urgent Need for Interprofessional Environmental Health Education to Achieve Universal Health Coverage, Even in Disasters." Environmental Science and Technology Letters 11(11). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00756). 

A: Opportunities exist due to shared pathways to professional practice, including foundational STEM knowledge and hands-on learning. This interface enables the emergence of a new professional, the ‘nurse+engineer,’ who uses engineering design and nursing science to improve research, education, practice, and policy.

Reference: "Table 2. Opportunities for further interprofessional explorations.

1. The professions of nursing and engineering share a common stereotype of gender bias, and educators may look for ways to overcome this bias through shared educational experiences (i.e. a learning environment that attracts and supports stereotypical ‘female nurses’ and ‘male engineers’ should have characteristics simultaneous attractive to multiple genders, gender expressions, etc.).

2. Pre-service students in nursing and engineering share a common educational pathway to professional practice, including, acquiring foundational knowledge, skills and attitudes in STEM; pedagogical similarities including hands-on learning through clinics, co-ops and service-learning; and licensure through examination coupled to successful pre-professional supervised practice. In our opinion, educators should look for ways to exploit this shared pathway to formalize interprofessional education. 

3. The opportunity exists for the emergence of a new professional, the ‘nurse–engineer’ (variously described as ‘clinical engineer’ or ‘nursing focused biomedical engineer’) who uses engineering design of technology and systems and nursing science and art to improve research, education, practice, and policy for the betterment of both the patient and the public." 

(from: Oerther, D.B., P. Yoder-Wise, and B. Malone. (2020). "Identifying Opportunities for Educators to Pursue Collaboration at the Interface of Nursing and Engineering - and a Word of Caution." Journal of Advanced Nursing 76(4):920-923. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14291).

A: The appropriate framework for converging nursing and engineering is the V-shaped professional. This identity is characterized by "bending" the deep specialization (I-shaped) of two or more disciplines to create an emergent nexus of a novel discipline, pioneered by professionals, guided by educators, and built by translators.

Reference: "Table 1. Key terms and definitions.

'I-shaped' professional: Characterized by depth of specialization in a single discipline.

'T-shaped' professional: Characterized by depth of specialization in a single discipline plus breadth of multidisciplinary collaboration.

'V-shaped' professional: Characterized by 'bending' the depth of specialization in a single discipline, plus 'bending' the depth of specialization in a second discipline to explore an emergent nexus of a novel discipline.

Pioneer: Professionals who lead the creation of a new V-shaped discipline.

Guide: Educators who move between existing I-shaped and T-shaped activities and the emerging V-shaped discipline.

Translator: Educators who learn the lingua franca of the new V-shaped discipline."

(from: Oerther, D.B. and S. Oerther. (2021). "From Interprofessional to Convergence: Nurses Educating V-shaped Professionals." Nurse Education in Practice 53:103047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2021.103047). 

A: The nurse+engineer model leverages the "Leave No One Behind" framework (derived from the SDGs) to improve interprofessional environmental health education. This approach ensures a global perspective when addressing local population health and confronts the challenges of the Anthropocene through convergence research.

Reference: "Conclusion: These two examples of coteaching engineers and nurses in Missouri highlight the importance of maintaining a global perspective while addressing the health of local populations. In particular, the importance of leveraging the three universal values of the SDGs - human rights, no one left behind, and gender equality - is centered on improving interprofessional environmental health education. As described previously, nurses have an important leadership role to play as humanity confronts the important questions of the Anthropocene, and convergence research is used to develop new solutions to these ongoing challenges. For example, engineers and sanitarins can practice alongside and learn with nurses (i.e., revising the collaborative period of Bazalgette, Chadwick, and Nightingale using modern technologies and social contracts such as leaving no one behind). Translators, developing the materials necessary for interprofessional education, have an explicit opportunity to leverage the unique contribution nursing brings to interprofessional environmental health education through the use of the leave no one behind framework."

(from: Oerther, D.B. and S. Oerther. (2022). "Improving Interprofessional Environmental Health Education Using the Leave No One Behind Framework." American Journal of Public Health 112(S3):S250-S252. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306832). 

A: Professor Oerther adapted Modified Mastery Learning from nursing pedagogy for use in environmental engineering courses. This method ensures students achieve a high degree of content proficiency before advancing, which is critical for teaching concepts like sustainability and ethical V-shaped professionalism.

Reference: "Using mastery learning as a conceptual framework, two courses were developed teaching sustainability and life-cycle principles. Course descriptions, student learning outcomes, and details of modules are provided in this case report. The results of teaching 5605: Environmental Systems Modeling over five semesters and the results of teaching 5619: Environmental Engineering Design over two semesters are summarized, including responses of students to end-of-term assessments of teaching effectiveness. Based on student performance and feedback, modified mastery learning is a valid approach to meeting the goal of teaching sustainability and life-cycle principles as part of modeling and design for environmental engineers in ABET-accredited degree programs. Future efforts should include replication with diverse student populations at additional institutions." 

(from: Oerther, D.B. (2022). "Using Modified Mastery Learning to Teach Sustainability and Life-Cycle Principles as Part of Modeling and Design." Environmental Engineering Science 39(9). https://doi.org/10.1089/ees.2021.0385).