IPE Orientation

Three students working together on an interprofessional education exercise at a table.

Educating future health professionals who are committed to effective team work begins at the very start of professional training. In the effort to equip Columbia students with the knowledge and commitment to deliver nonhierarchical team health care, the Columbia Commons Interprofessional Education (IPE) Committee offers a virtual IPE Orientation, called e-CUIMC, which is delivered over the course of one week every Fall Semester. Incoming students from 10 professional health schools are sorted into small, mixed teams and engage collaboratively around a patient case study while learning about each member’s roles and responsibilities on a health care team.

The learning objectives of e-CUIMC are for students to develop the capacity to:

  1. Identify team members’ roles and responsibilities and reflect on their own
  2. Understand the contribution of other disciplines in optimizing health care delivery
  3. Recognize the value of interdisciplinary perspectives in health care decision making
  4. Listen attentively and encourage ideas and opinions of other team members
  5. Establish and maintain a climate of mutual respect, dignity, integrity, and trust
  6. Recognize how a team-based approach can help address social and structural determinants of health