Interprofessional education occurs when representatives of multiple professions learn about, from and with each other to develop cohesive practices that improve health care and social well-being. Students from the five health and social care majors offered at LAU participate in the Interprofessional Education program (IPE), coming together from the School of Arts & Sciences, the Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing, the School of Pharmacy, and the Gilbert & Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine.

Mission

The mission of the IPE program is to prepare health and social care professionals who have the attitudes, knowledge, skills and commitment required to function as effective collaborative team members in providing high quality, patient/client-centered care.

The IPE program builds on the curricula of LAU’s health and social care programs and uses a student-centered educational approach. The program partners with post-licensure professionals to foster life-long learning and creation of environments that support interprofessional health and social care collaboration.

Program Objectives

The IPE program provides learning experiences for health and social care students in settings ranging from classrooms to laboratories and clinical settings related to the:

1. value of interprofessional collaboration in providing high quality patient/client-centered care,
2. specific knowledge and skills that various health and social care professionals bring to the care of patients/clients,
3. methods for promoting effective communication, collaboration, and teamwork among health and social care professionals,
4. strategies of sharing and integrating evidence-based practice that draws on research and best practices from all health and social care fields to improve patient/client care,
5. knowledge and skills needed to develop and participate in interprofessional quality improvement activities, and
6. incorporation of ethical standards of different health and social care professionals, all to enhance health care outcomes and social well-being.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of LAU’s health and social care programs should be able to:

1. recognize other professionals’ expertise, roles, responsibilities and competence,
2. use effective communication techniques with other professionals to effect change and resolve conflict when providing patient/client care,
3. develop interprofessional collaboration in health and social care settings,
4. make decisions with other professionals and the patient/client when planning and implementing health and social care,
5. develop interprofessional case conferences, team meetings, and quality improvement activities,
6. demonstrate evidence-based interdisciplinary approaches to provide a safe environment for patients/clients and achieve good patient/client outcomes, and
7. resolve ethical issues that arise in health and social care settings.

Work Group/Faculty

Faculty from the five LAU academic programs that prepare health and social care professionals come together to plan and offer all IPE learning activities.

School of Arts & Sciences  (Nutrition Program)

• Nadine Zeeni, Ph.D.,  Human Nutrition, IPE Coordinator
• Maya Bassil, Ph.D., Nutrition
• Sandra Karnaby, M.S., R.D., Clinical Nutrition

Gilbert & Rose-Marie Chagoury  School of Medicine

• Nadia Asmar, M.D., General Medicine/Occupational Medicine & Homeopathy Clinical & Communication Skills
• Anna Farra, M.D., Ph.D., Infectious Diseases Microbiology/Immunology
• Yara Al Jalbout, M.D., Anesthesiology

Alice Ramez Chagoury  School of Nursing

• Anahid Kulwicki, Ph.D., RN, FAAN
• Rita Doumit, R.N., Ph.D.
• Maha Habre, M.S.N., R.N., C.E.N.

School of Pharmacy

• Aline Milane, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Soumana Chamoun Nasser, Pharm.D.
• Yara Kuyumjian, Pharm.D., Clinical Pharmacy

Programs/Learning Activities

The IPE Work Group/Faculty schedules IPE learning activities at the onset of every academic year. Students are notified through their own school or department of the IPE activities they will be attending. The didactic sessions are held on the Byblos campus and are typically designed for large student groups and follow from the LAU-IPE Steps (see below). Practice IPE learning activities enable students to transfer what they have learned about IPE to the actual care of patients and clients in clinical health care and community settings.

Didactic LAU-IPE Steps

The Lebanese American University Interprofessional Education (LAU IPE) Steps consist of a series of five half-day mandatory, co-curricular and consecutive workshops offered throughout the curriculum of health and social care students. The series is equivalent to 15 contact hours, and delivered over two or three years, depending on the profession. Students from different professions are grouped together by program level (Entry, Intermediate or Advanced) based on the amount of clinical experience they have received and their familiarity with interdisciplinary or interprofessional practice. While Entry level consists of students who have not yet had any clinical learning experience regardless of their class year, the Intermediate level includes students who are enrolled in their initial clinical experiences. The Advanced level includes students who are nearing completion of their training, having had multiple clinical experiences and gained broader knowledge of healthcare:

• Step 1: Introduction to Interprofessional Collaboration
• Step 2: Interprofessional Communication
• Step 3: Teamwork and Conflict Resolution
• Step 4: Improving Safety and Quality of Care through Interprofessional Collaboration
• Step 5: Ethics: An Interprofessional Approach

Practice IPE

A variety of practice IPE activities are offered annually and led by full-time faculty members. These clinical or community activities involve students from two or more LAU health and social care majors. Examples include:

• Community awareness campaigns and Health Fairs in public places such as Byblos Souks or various malls and supermarkets (e.g., for chronic disease or cancer prevention)
• Interprofessional activity on disaster preparedness and triage
• Interprofessional case preparation and presentation at LAU Medical Center-RH
• Interprofessional simulation at the Clinical Simulation Center

Contact Information

For more information, visit the IPE website or contact

Nadine Zeeni, Ph.D., IPE Coordinator
Nadine.zeeni@lau.edu.lb or ipe@lau.edu.lb
Block A, RM 818
LAU Byblos Campus
Ext. 2317