For the first time, the Hawaiʻi Interprofessional Team Collaboration Simulation was held online to simulate interprofessional discharge planning. The one-day session held on Thursday, April 2, provided 118 University of Hawaiʻi health science students the opportunity to work as a team, planning care for a simulated geriatric client.
Typically, the event is conducted at the UH Translational Health Science Simulation Center (UH THSSC) located at UH Mānoa Nursing. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UH THSSC staff quickly converted the event to an online format.
The students come from various health science units at UH, including the UH Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine, School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, Office of Public Health Studies and UH Hilo Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy.
The School of Social Work was instrumental in the implementation of Zoom breakout rooms. Using Zoom, students broke out into small groups of interprofessional teams to create discharge plans for a geriatric patient with multiple medical problems. Working as a team and relying on each profession’s specialized focus, groups developed discharge plans for the patient to ensure a successful transition home.
Following the planning, student teams conducted a live discharge meeting with a family member of the geriatric client. The actor playing the role of the family member was a graduate student from the HealthCAST program, a collaboration of UH Mānoa nursing and the Department of Theatre and Dance. The simulation activity allowed students to develop their teamwork and communication skills.
“In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact that we are starting to see emerge in Hawaiʻi, the Hawaii Interprofessional Education (HIPE) committee and I firmly believed in the importance of moving this simulation online to provide our students with this valuable learning experience,” said Lorrie Wong, director of UH Translational Health Science Simulation Center and member of the HIPE committee. “Now more than ever, effective and efficient interprofessional team approaches are necessary to ensure the delivery of quality and safe patient-centered care.”
The HIPE committee was created by the UH Council of Health Sciences. HIPE expands cross-school collaboration in education, strengthens areas of common interest and provides an open forum to address health and social welfare-related issues in education.
