The 7 weeks prior to Match, our school has a class called Capstone. During Capstone, we have a series of lectures on preparing for intern year. While one lecture is about the management of shock, another is management of psychiatric patients as a surgeon. We even get our ACLS certification during this time.
One of the key features of this class is known as IPE: Interprofessional Education. We have a series of lectures that focus on medical ethics, legal issues in medicine, patient safety, and medical business. What is unique about this course is that we have nursing and PA students come to these courses.
While there is some lecture, most of the course is discussion based. It’s great to hear the perspectives from nursing and PA students. We get to share our unique experiences and see where they might be differences in perspectives. It’s a very enlightening experience to learn from other professionals.
So many of the challenges in medicine come from miscommunications between providers. Learning how to work with each other early may help our future as providers.