TWU Houston Campus Hosts Texas IPE Consortium

April 19, 2023 – DENTON – While interprofessional collaboration has always been a valued part of the teaching and learning at Texas Woman’s, formal interprofessional education or IPE has been gaining momentum the last few years at the university. 

“Texas Woman’s has a long history in experiential learning or learning by doing,” said TWU College of Health Sciences and College of Nursing Associate Dean for Interprofessional Education and Strategic Initiatives Noralyn Pickens, PhD. “By being intentional about interprofessional education on each campus and their communities, we are demonstrating its value to our faculty, students, faculty and applicants. Learning alongside peers from other disciplines creates opportunities for our students to develop effective communication skills that are critical to best patient care.”

Texas Woman’s faculty and students will have the opportunity to collaborate with IPE professionals and peers from all over the state of Texas when the TWU Houston campus hosts the Texas IPE Consortium on April 20. The annual meeting includes speakers, lightning talk sessions, workshops and interactive demonstrations. 

One of those sessions will include Texas Woman’s associate professor Wayne Brewer, PT, PhD. Brewer will be discussing the integration of additional disciplines into a legacy IPE activity along with collaborators Anne C. Gill, Dr.P.H., the assistant dean of IPE at Baylor College of Medicine and Catherine L. Hatfield, the director of IPE at University of Houston College of Pharmacy. 

Since October 2022, students and faculty from the TWU School of Physical Therapy at the Houston campus as well as the TWU College of Nursing have been volunteering with No Place Like Home, a home health education experience. Baylor College of Medicine and Houston College of Pharmacy have collaborated for the last 10 years on this program, where medical and pharmacy students conduct in-home visits with geriatric patients who may lack resources.

Brewer worked with Gill to add physical therapy to those monthly visits. He also facilitated with School of PT-Houston faculty to serve as instructors in order for TWU students to participate. Second and third year PT students, accompanied by a PT faculty member, have joined with a geriatrician or nurse practitioner and a pharmacy student on clinical home visits. At every visit, a PT student has conducted a detailed PT exam, collaborated with the medical student and physician and assisted in making recommendations to the patient.

Brewer, who served as the faculty volunteer for the March 2023 visit, has seen an overall positive experience, especially with faculty getting the opportunity to observe students in a pseudo-clinic environment.