News

Researchers, Students Urged to Become Science Advocates

By being effective advocates for science funding, researchers can help the U.S. lead the world in science and help their own careers, UAMS students and faculty were told at a recent lecture.

“The public does not understand what we do and they don’t understand why we do it,” said Richard L. Eckert, Ph.D., from the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, where he is a professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The Sept. 27 lecture was sponsored by the Office of Interprofessional Education and the College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Knowing how to talk to nonscientists about the importance of research is an important skill for researchers, Eckert said. “Leave out the calcium concentrations. Tell the big picture.”

Whether talking to family or friends at a party, the importance of science and the threats to funding must be communicated clearly.

He noted that the U.S. share of worldwide research and development has fallen in recent years from 35 to 27 percent, while Asia’s share has climbed from 27 to 40 percent.

The good news is that Congress has started to increase funding for research, but current funding levels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) remain below 2003 levels in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Funding stability is especially critical in science, he said, because a sudden cut in funding such as occurred in 2013 can sabotage years invested in science programs.

“This will be very important to your careers because you’re going to be funded by the federal government to do research, and you’ll want to pursue your work,” Eckert said. “Very few Americans know what the NIH is, and that’s why you have to make an effort to tell them.”

Eckert leads delegations of researchers to Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. to speak directly to members of the House and Senate.

“In the years to come you’re going to have to increasingly engage with this kind of activity because lots of people are asking for support from government and sometimes budgets are limited so we have to be there and we have to lobby with our congressmen and senators to do things that are in the interest of science progression,” he said.

At UAMS, such outreach is led by Maurice Rigsby, J.D., vice chancellor for Institutional Relations.

By David Robinson| October 4th, 2017|University News

Proposals Now Accepted for Interprofessional/Interdisciplinary Small Grants (10/03/17)

The UAMS Office of Interprofessional Education is now accepting proposals for its small grant program, designed to promote interprofessional collaborative practice initiatives. Deadline for proposal submission is 5 p.m., Nov. 10, 2017.

Program Goal:

Promote the scholarship of interprofessional collaboration and practice in the areas of clinical care

The project requesting support may include, but is not limited to, a focus on:

The impact of interprofessional practice on (for example):

Patient outcomes
Patient safety
Patient experience
Cost-effectiveness of health care

Research on interprofessional practices (i.e., development/validation of interprofessional practice assessment measures)

Award:
Multiple grants will be awarded. Grants will range from $5,000 to $15,000.

Eligibility Criteria:

The Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PIs and other investigators may be faculty, postdocs, graduate students, or clinical staff — but must be affiliated with UAMS (faculty or staff must be UAMS employees; graduate students must be enrolled in UAMS Graduate School).
The investigator team must have an interprofessional composition. “Interprofessional” is defined as the representation of two or more professions (e.g., nurse and physician, pharmacist and physician assistant).
In addition to including investigators representing multiple professions, the proposed project should aim to establish a relationship between interprofessional practice and outcomes.
Scholarly work that establishes baseline data or demonstrates strong potential for obtaining additional funding will be viewed favorably.

Application Process:
Include abbreviated curriculum vitae (or NIH Biosketch) of all investigators
Include letter(s) of support from the supervisor of the PI and Co-PI (if applicable)

Maximum of five pages including:

Specific Aims
Significance and Innovation
Rationale for the interprofessional team’s composition, along with roles and responsibilities for each project team member
A description of how an interprofessional team is required for project design and implementation
How the project addresses one or more elements of the Triple Aim (improved patient experience, improved population health or reduced cost for care)
Rationale and Approach (including methods, outcome measures, data analysis plans, and project evaluation)
A plan to evaluate the project’s outcomes and the function of the interprofessional team
Plan for dissemination of results (presentation of work at a relevant national meeting and/or publication is required)
References cited will not count as part of the page limit
Timeline (including a progress report at six months and project completion within 12 months after receiving funds/IRB approval)
IRB approval (if available). Note that IRB approval is required before funding can be awarded.
Budget (may include salary support, travel to present at a professional meeting, supplies, participant fees, IRB fee, and other expenses needed to conduct the work.) Entire awarded amount will be transferred after receipt of IRB approval.

ALL MATERIALS MUST BE COMBINED AND SUBMITTED IN A SINGLE PDF DOCUMENT.

For questions about this grant program, please contact the Office of Interprofessional Education, ipe@uams.edu or call (501)686-5686.

Deadline: 5 p.m., Nov. 10, 2017
Submit completed application packet as a single PDF file to: provost@uams.edu.

Story by Jon C. Parham for Inside UAMS

IPE’s very own Dr. Jaffar is this weeks Team UAMS winner!

(From the insideUAMS page)

Muhammad Jaffar

Posted: Monday, April 17, 2017

Meet Muhammad Jaffar, Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Director Interprofessional Collaborative Practice.

Muhammad has been with UAMS since 1996 and joined as faculty in 1998.

Jaffar said his commitment to the patient and family focus is part of why he loves UAMS. Their similar core values, caring staff and opportunity to advance are what makes UAMS more than just a hospital.

“UAMS has given me a great sense of purpose in my life,” said Jaffar.

IPE Grant Assists Increased Hand Hygiene Compliance Education and Training at UAMS

In Spring 2017, the Office of Interprofessional Education (IPE) awarded a $6,000 grant to Jennifer Hunt, MD, Chair of the UAMS Pathology Department Chair, for her submission, “An Innovative, Interprofessional Education and Training Platform to Increase Hand Hygiene Compliance at UAMS.”

The week-long event ran from March 27-31, 2017 with tables set up across the campus. Activities included breakfast, drawings for door prizes, and handouts such as hand sanitizer and stress balls. Employees were asked to sign hand washing pledge boards, promising to keep patients safe utilizing proper hand hygiene methods.

Interprofessional educators, including nurses, medical students, physicians, and volunteers, spent time with UAMS employees teaching proper hand washing techniques and awareness of hand hygiene concerns.

Viewing their hands under a black light, employees were shocked to discover how many germs were transferred from a simple hand shake.

Educators also emphasized the importance of washing fingertips and under the nails, as these are high bacteria collection areas.

“We are thrilled with the success of our first-ever Hand Hygiene Week. The event could not have been possible without our amazing interprofessional volunteers and without the IPE grant funding supporting some of the costs.” said Dr. Hunt. “And, the best part is that we are not even close to finished! The next phase of our program will be even more exciting. Watch for our launch of the interprofessional education program in the next few weeks.”

If you would like to learn more about the IPE Grant program email: ipe@uams.edu

IPE Office Awards Inaugural Small Grants to Promote Collaborative Practice

From the Academic Affairs newsletter – spring 2017

The Office of Interprofessional Education (IPE) recently awarded five grants totaling just over $36,000 in its inaugural IPE Small Grant Program.

The IPE office established the program to promote interprofessional education and collaborative practice at UAMS. The call for submissions in fall 2016 asked for proposals that stimulated scholarship of interprofessional collaboration, in areas of clinical care, education or research.

A panel that included the provost, the three IPE directors, the chair of the IPE Research Subcommittee and additional faculty members representing the UAMS Integrated Clinical Enterprise (ICE) reviewed the submissions. The grants were announced in January.

Grant awards (and principal investigators) for submissions focused on collaborative practice included:

An Innovative, Interprofessional Education and Training Platform to Increase Hand Hygiene Compliance at UAMS, PI: Jennifer Hunt, M.D. ($6,000)
Geriatrics-Focused Interprofessional Training (G-FIT) in the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH), PI: Paula Podrazik, M.D. ($10,900)
Syphilis Testing Result Education and Counseling Simulation, PI: Letycia Catalina Núñez Argote, M.P.H., CPH, MLS ($5,800)

Grant awards (and principal investigators) for submissions focused on interprofessional education included:

Interprofessional education curriculum development to enhance communication skills among health professionals interacting with transgender and gender nonconforming patients, clients and community members, PI: Julie Ginn Moretz ($10,900)
Research Advocacy Simulation — A learning activity that highlights the role of basic science research in UAMS’ mission of advancing knowledge in areas of human health and disease and translating and accelerating discoveries into health improvements, PI: Mari Davidson, Ph.D. ($2,500)

The Office of Interprofessional Education intends to make the grant program yearly, with another call for submissions anticipated this fall.

How do I document my IPE involvement in my promotion package?

Faculty members are encouraged to document their IPE certification and participation in IPE events. If you have questions, please contact the Office of Interprofessional Education at (501)686-5686 or email IPE@uams.edu.

As a scientist, what does this mean for me? / How do I get involved in multidisciplinary team science?

Interprofessional Collaborative Research involves the active engagement of two or more professions or disciplines in a research project, with the highest degree of integrated collaboration — all members of the research team are equally involved in the research process from start to finish.

In this context, profession is defined as a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification and discipline is defined as a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education. Thus collaborative researchers might include those from different academic disciplines (physics, chemistry, biology, statistics, computer science, economics, sociology, psychology, education, etc.) or professionals (health care administrator, statistician, educator, researcher, nurse, physician, etc.).

Team-based, interprofessional/interdisciplinary collaborative researchers will work together to:

Identify common interests, questions, and hypotheses
Design the research project
Interpret the results in terms of their significance and implications
Disseminate research findings broadly across multiple professional groups for maximum impact

Collaborative researchers respect the knowledge that each participant brings to the discussion so that together they might know better how to understand complex problems, and can include a wide range of research areas including basic science, clinical research, educational science, and community research.

Specifically, the Office of IPE provides learning experiences that teach researchers how to create and enhance the quality of their research collaborations. These offerings will assist in promoting more team-based science to collaboratively investigate complex problems and further scientific knowledge. These offerings will underscore the UAMS culture of collaboration, as well as the core competency domains for interprofessional collaborative research that is integrated within that culture.

What does this mean for me in clinical practice? / How do I build or develop a clinical team?

Patient- and family-centered care is a central tenet in the clinical environment at UAMS. Health care reform has led to the consideration of interprofessional team-based, collaborative care as a way to provide comprehensive care to patients and their families.

Many clinicians at UAMS wish to move from solo practice to an interprofessional collaborative practice, but are unsure of the steps or skills necessary. The Office of Interprofessional Education has developed evidence-based programs dedicated to faculty skill development in how to build an interprofessional collaborative team.

In addition, these offerings will provide activities for faculty to develop the four core competency domains of high-quality interprofessional team-based care that keeps patients and their needs first: teamwork, understanding and coordinating roles/responsibilities, effective communication and developing a culture of shared values/ethics.

Delivery of quality care to provide comprehensive health care services for patients and their families is challenging and complex. Fostering collaborative, integrated care and evidence-based care models that implicate specific skill acquisition in addition to didactic learning that is evidence-based is key. Specifically, we will provide learning experiences that target skills that research has shown to enhance the quality of clinical collaborations and team-based care, reduce safety events and positively impact patient- and family- engagement and satisfaction in the care environment. These offerings will underscore the UAMS culture of patient- and family-centeredness and the core competency domains for interprofessional collaborative practice that are integrated within that culture.

How do I make my course an IPE course?

A facilitator skills workshop (IPE 201) is available. Attendees learn facilitator skills needed for working with interprofessional groups of learners.

Also, participants engage in active/experiential learning activities focused on adapting existing learning experiences from solo professional to interprofessional and/or the creative design and implementation of a new IPE event. Further, they will be collaboratively led by an interprofessional group of co-presenters, who will model interprofessional collaboration skills while teaching.

Already facilitating IPE events? Click here for information about our Exemption Policy

Already facilitating interprofessional education events? — Our Exemption Policy

The Office of IPE recognizes that there are UAMS faculty among us who are already engaged in interprofessional education activities and have been for some time. While you still can participate in our IPE Facilitator and Master Facilitator certification processes, some of you may wish to be acknowledged for your already-existing expertise in IPE facilitation.

If so, please submit the online form found HERE for review by the Office of IPE Faculty Development Committee. Be sure to be specific and include dates of participation. You will also need to include a PDF version of your current CV.

Information needed for IPE Certification Special Exemption:

Please list each of the IPE events you have facilitated (it is acceptable to copy/paste from your CV) and add the name and profession of all co-presenters for that event, as well as the professions in which the student attendees are training. Most importantly, describe how interprofessional learners are learning about, from, and with each other and which core competencies you think are skills being developed during the event (teamwork, shared values/ethics, communication, and/or understanding roles/responsibilities).
Please note that there are two different types of certification. Effective facilitation of one type of IPE event (e.g., exposure workshop, research project advisor, movie review, 12th Street preceptor, etc) is termed IPE Facilitator Certification. Effective facilitation of three or more types of IPE events is termed Master IPE Facilitator Certification. If upon review of your materials the Office of IPE Faculty Development Committee is unable to determine the nature/extent of your IPE facilitation activities the Committee may request additional information and/or observe your facilitation of your IPE event.