IPE Clinic History
The Beginning
In the summer of 2012, with the vision, inspiration and support of Dr. Peggy Wisdom and the Wisdom Family Foundation, a small group of faculty began a year-long process of developing an interprofessional education program on the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (HSC) campus.
During academic year 2013-2014, 18 faculty and 76 students from 7 colleges and 13 disciplines completed the Empowering Patients through Interprofessional Care (EPIC) program. This curriculum required completion of four, 4 hour active learning sessions in the fall of 2013 and four, 4 hour clinic sessions in the spring of 2014. The curriculum for the EPIC project was designed around 4 core topics related to healthcare professional teams – Roles and Responsibilities, Ethics and Values, Communication, and Teamwork. These topics were aligned with the Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice, as outlined in the May 2011 report of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC).
Our EPIC teams were first involved in patient care at Crossings Clinic Midtown (previously known as Good Shepherd Charitable Clinic) in downtown Oklahoma City during the spring semester of 2014. A total of 16 clinic sessions occurred on Thursday evenings with a total of 29 patients receiving longitudinal care delivered by an interprofessional team of 9-10 students. Approximately 6 patients per team were managed throughout the spring semester. Patients were chosen for the project based on complexity of their healthcare needs. During the initial visit, healthcare teams collaborated with each patient to determine problem lists of medical issues to be addressed at each appointment and developed goals for the patient’s health. At the final clinic session, students reviewed the progress made toward each goal. Significant improvements in health parameters were noted.
2017-2018
In 2017-2018 there were 76 OU students from 14 different academic programs across seven colleges who participated in the EPIC Interprofessional Clinical Experience. Teams completed a four-hour didactic session, a four-hour simulation session, and 16 clinical contact hours to provide direct-patient care. Patients with complex needs were chosen to participate in the program, with some returning for follow-up care with the same team throughout the experience.
Current IPE Clinical Experience
In 2019, our student-led Unity Clinic team outlined a new approach to the IPE Clinical Experience, which is now known as Unity Clinic. Today, Unity Clinic operates as a sustainable, replicable, standardized clinic model that allows all students to participate in a meaningful way.