Amplifying Student Led Interprofessional Projects by Utilizing a Leadership Team
Background: The Duke Health Center for Interprofessional Education and Care (IPEC) was created to develop interdisciplinary skills and collaboration between healthcare students. The Student Advisory Committee (SAC) was formed to gather MD, PA, PT, OT, and Nursing trainees who could spearhead interprofessional educational, service, and social events. Since SAC’s inception, it has been restructured to find the most productive model for student collaboration.
Initial Model: Students were divided across 4 workgroups (classroom, social media, service learning, and social) according to their preferences. These workgroups held meetings as needed to plan events. Otherwise, meetings with all SAC members were required 3 times each year.
Restructure: To expand on the model of the successful workgroups, we implemented a charter to define expectations and created a leadership team to promote workflow. The team included representatives from each school, as well as designated leads for communications and social media. Each designated leader oversaw 1 event, acting as a liaison to assist with event planning. Meetings were held between event groups as needed, between leadership team members monthly, between the leadership team and faculty monthly, and between all SAC members 3 times per year.
Methodology: Data on event categories and their frequency was gathered over a two-year period from the student branch of an interdisciplinary organization at an academic institution to assess student engagement.
Results: For the initial model, 4 events were planned across 2 categories: education (n=1) and social (n=3). After the implementation of the leadership team and charter, 9 events were planned across all categories: education (n=3), service (n=2), and social (n=4).
Conclusion: The SAC restructure with implementation of the leadership team and charter led to an increasingly engaged cohort. Within the initial model, the assignment of workgroups for students often led to misalignment of interests, which impacted enthusiasm. After the restructure, LT members were available to support event planning and members were empowered to select their own event planning teams, thus placing greater emphasis on collaboration. Qualitatively, planning committees involved more students across disciplines in each team. Event participation also saw a more diverse spread across disciplines, but attendance was not tracked consistently to be accurately reported. Overall, the student-led leadership team led to an increasingly engaged interdisciplinary cohort and further restructure cycles will continue this growth.
Reflection and Next Steps: The second restructure of SAC will focus on enhancing engagement and expanding the impact of SAC events. An additional role will be added to the leadership team for a first-year student, meeting frequency will increase from 3 yearly to monthly, and recognition of members will be honored at graduation. Additionally, SAC members will connect with existing community partners and develop longitudinal interdisciplinary service-learning events.
