UI summer program emphasizes team approach to medical care

IOWA CITY -- Seven University of Iowa students from disciplines including medicine, social work, nursing and dentistry, listened to a patient named Pat list off his numerous health issues.

Pat recently had a mini stroke, has high blood pressure and suffers from chronic back pain, for which he takes pain medication daily. Added to that, Pat is a smoker with no health insurance and no driver's license, making it hard for him to get to medical appointments.

The students questioned Pat about his medical history, management of his medications, how often he sees a doctor and what his diet is like, and then they formulated a plan for treatment.

The discussion Thursday was a simulation -- "Pat" was an actor trained to be a patient -- but it helps the students learn about how the different medical disciplines deal with patients, and to see how those disciplines are connected in treatment.

"We need to be able to answer certain questions to make a treatment plan," Michael Kelly, a UI clinical professor of pharmacy leading the discussion session, told the students. "What else do we need to know? We need the information we don't have."

This week's interprofessional training for students in health care disciplines is part of the Carver College of Medicine's "Clinical Beginnings" week, which prepares third-year medical students for clinical rotations. Students from other areas -- nursing, physician assistants, dentistry, social work, pharmacy and physical therapy -- join for some of the training sessions. Iowa State University also sends over a small number of dietician interns for the week of interdisciplinary training. The program, in its seventh year, has about 500 students and 65 UI faculty and staff participating this year.

The training helps students see how each discipline approaches the case, and what questions are of interest to each specialty, Kelly said.

"This kind of interdisciplinary care is going to be the way of the future," he said.

Third-year medical student Benson Hargens said it was helpful to see how long it takes for each person to talk to the patient and explain the necessary information. It will help him understand as a doctor that it can take some time for each specialty to deal with the patient, he said.

Maria Sonnack, 24, in her second year as a physician assistant student, said it's nice to learn about the background and training of other disciplines, and also to explain to those students what physician assistants do.

"Not everyone has an understanding of the other roles," she said. "It's nice to be able to learn about all the other specialties because you're going to need to utilize them. If you can't work as a team, your patient suffers."