To further integrate best practices, The Waldron College of Health and Human Services (WCHHS) at Radford University has established the Center for Interprofessional Education and Practice (CIPEP).
CIPEP sharpens the WCHHS focus on preparing health care and human service providers to transform service delivery through collaborative practice. Interprofessional education is predicated upon the tenet that sustainable, innovative health care, effective health promotion and good patient outcomes require full and creative participation of all providers, according to Center Director and Associate Dean Corey Cassidy.
“The CIPEP will serve as both catalyst and resource center to facilitate our mastery of the dynamics of interprofessional teamwork. The learning environment we create for our students is intended to connect their education to the care they will provide as professionals,” Cassidy said. “The future of health care is based on an integrated care model and we recognize the importance of creating opportunities to engage in that model within the students’ educational experience here at Radford University.”
The CIPEP portfolio will include the college’s two flagship interprofessional education initiatives – the fall Interprofessional Education and Practice Symposium and the spring Waldron College Interprofessional Symposium and Expo (WCIPSE).
The Interprofessional Education and Practice Symposium is an annual interprofessional learning opportunity for students to practice communication, negotiation, advocacy and leadership on behalf of a client in concert with professional colleagues of other disciplines. The WCIPSE unites Waldron College departments and schools with partners across the campus and community to explore community health and human services networks and promote its health care-based research and service initiatives.
The CIPEP will also coordinate and enhance other professional community-building initiatives such as the college’s Student Ambassador program, the WCHHS Scholarship Wall of Fame, Let’s Get W.I.R.E.D. – the annual WCHHS faculty research networking opportunity, and the college’s annual Character Campaign, which includes monthly events focused on timely issues and an intramural poster contest during which students from the five WCHHS units articulate the similarities and differences among their disciplines to their colleagues.
“Good patient outcomes require the full, creative participation of all healthcare providers. In the field and in the classroom, the CIPEP will enhance our ongoing efforts to support Waldron College students and faculty as they join with the health care industry and work toward solutions to the complex health care issues that impact our communities,” said Dean Kenneth Cox.
— Don Bowman
