Skip to content Skip to main navigation Skip to footer

UIndy Interprofessional Education Week 2019

Nursing students with dummy

Collaboration is key in today’s healthcare settings, and the second annual Interprofessional Education (IPE) Week at the University of Indianapolis will highlight the benefits of this approach for students, faculty, medical professionals and patients alike.

Taking place Sept 30 to Oct. 4, 2019, with many events open to the public, IPE Week is the brainchild of organizers from the College of Health Sciences, the School of Nursing and the College of Applied Behavioral Sciences. Students will have the opportunity to participate in classroom and extracurricular activities to learn about trending topics in various healthcare fields.

IPE Week continues a focus on the concept of integrated healthcare which is characterized by a high degree of collaboration and communication among health professionals. What makes integrated health care unique is the sharing of information among team members related to patient care and the establishment of a comprehensive treatment plan to address the biological, psychological and social needs of the patient. 

IPE Week features a kick-off event Sept. 30 on the topic of “The Disease of Addiction,” and will also include panel discussions, simulations and presentations on topics including addiction, health disparities and ethics, many of which are open to the public. Other events are aimed specifically at students and faculty at UIndy in healthcare-related fields. 

The goal of IPE Week is to encourage students to consider how they will address various patient needs alongside colleagues in other professions. One example of this collaboration could be an inpatient rehabilitation floor of a hospital, where a patient might come into contact with a physician, nurses, occupational and physical therapists, a social worker, pharmacists, speech language pathologists, and more. Everyone on the patient’s team needs to work together – and IPE Week helps students recognize the benefits of collaboration.

The interprofessional perspective pays dividends for faculty as well as student success. Emergency simulations held in 2016, 2017 and 2018 have served as the basis for several scholarly pursuits for UIndy faculty, and dozens of faculty have presented posters or talks on IPE at regional, national and international conferences.

See below for a schedule of events and session descriptions:

Monday, September 30: 


The Disease of Addiction: The Brain, Shame, and the Family (LP Credit)
5-7pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff
Registration Required (Register by Thursday 9/26)

She lost her son to addiction at the age of 20. Justin Phillips now leads Overdose Lifeline, a non-profit organization designed to help individuals and families affected by addiction through education, advocacy, and prevention. Learn about the causes of the disease of addiction and opioid crisis, stigma and shame that results, and family impact of addiction through this moving presentation.

Tuesday, October 1:

Poverty Simulation
9am-12pm; HEAL 2nd Floor Atrium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff
Registration Required

Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) promotes a greater understanding of poverty. During the simulation, participants role-play the lives of low-income families from single parents trying to care for their children to senior citizens trying to maintain their self-sufficiency on Social Security. Visit www.povertysimulation.org to learn more.

Motivational Interviewing (LP Credit)
10-11am; Annis Auditorium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff

Learn how to work with individuals who are experiencing ambivalence about change and learn to help them develop discrepancies between their actions and their values.

Screen, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (LP Pending)
11am-12pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based practice used to identify, reduce, and prevent problematic use, abuse, and dependence on alcohol and illicit drugs. The techniques include Motivational Interviewing.

 Alternatives to Pain Medication: Measures and Techniques
12-1pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff

 Interactive learning opportunities with physical therapy and exercise science to focus on measures and tools/techniques to use 

Mindfulness (LP Credit)
1-2pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff

Learn about and practice how to directly impact the body’s responses to fear, trauma, memories of fear, and memories of trauma through experiential activities.

Pregnancy and Early Childhood: The Effects of Maternal Drug Use
5-6:30pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all in and outside UIndy

Learn from healthcare professionals along the spectrum of care about how maternal peri-natal drug use can affect the mother and child physically, mentally, and emotionally.

 Addiction on the Big Screen (LP Credit)
6:30-7:30pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all in and outside of UIndy

Discuss addictions issues as seen in major films and TV series.

Wednesday, October 2

Narcan Training
10am-12pm; UIndy Hall
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff
Registration Required

The United States is facing a public health crisis directly related to the chronic disease of addiction.  Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in our state. In 2017, more Americans died from preventable drug overdose than lives lost to the Vietnam War. Learn about the reversal of opioid overdose with naloxone and how to administer naloxone (Narcan). 

Addiction Doesn’t Care How Old You Are
11am-12:30pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff

Panel discussing the impact of addictions and addictive behaviors on older adults. 

IPE Brown Bag Lunch Presentation: How Different Types of “Therapists” Meet the Needs of a Person in Crisis
12pm-1pm; HEAL 308
Open to all UIndy students, faculty and staff

Professional art therapists, occupational therapists, and psychotherapists provide services to individuals who have mental health and substance use concerns.  However, the way that each “therapist” conceptualizes and treats the same presenting concerns may be quite different depending upon their professional and theoretical orientations.  During this brown bag lunch session, psychologist Dr. Jackie Hess, occupational therapist Dr. Alison Nichols, and art therapist Professor Michelle Itczak will respond to a case study presented by Dr. Rachel Feldwisch, Director of Counseling Programs.  Time will be allotted for follow-up questions and comments from the audience.

Committed to Healing: Recovering Healthcare Professionals Panel (LP Credit)
3-4pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all in and outside UIndy

Did you know that 10-15% of healthcare professionals misuse substances during their lifetime? Hear from healthcare professionals in long-term recovery about their stories of addiction, recovery, and professional roles now in addiction treatment facilities in this panel discussion.

10 Hidden Things that Affect How We Do Healthcare: Dr. Louis Profeta (LP Credit)
6-7:30pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all in and outside UIndy
Part of University Series events

10 Hidden Things that Affect How We Do Healthcare” will be an interprofessional discussion led by Dr. Louis Profeta, ED physician at St. Vincent Hospital and most-read health essayist on LinkedIn. Students will be encouraged to think beyond the silo of their own discipline to understand issues that affect the way they provide (and use) healthcare and to apply an IPE lens to factors that influence healthcare delivery.

Thursday, October 3

Poverty Simulation
9am-12pm; HEAL 2nd Floor Atrium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff
Registration Required

Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) promotes a greater understanding of poverty. During the simulation, participants role-play the lives of low-income families from single parents trying to care for their children to senior citizens trying to maintain their self-sufficiency on Social Security. Visit www.povertysimulation.org to learn more.

Narcan Training
5:30-7:00pm; UIndy Hall A
Open to all in and outside UIndy
Registration Required

The United States is facing a public health crisis directly related to the chronic disease of
addiction. Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in our state. In 2017, more
Americans died from preventable drug overdose than lives lost to the Vietnam War. 3. Learn
about the reversal of opioid overdose with Naloxone and how to administer Naloxone (Narcan).”

Going Beyond the Medical Model: The Social Context of Drug Addiction
12:50-1:50; Heal 206
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff

This presentation draws on contemporary, groundbreaking research to challenge the current
medical model of addiction and expand our discussion. This includes Bruce Alexander’s “Rat
Park” study and the recent research of Dr. Carl Hart, who was the first tenured African American
professor of neurosciences at Columbia University. The goal will be to demonstrate that drug
use is, in fact, embedded in a social context and that said context might be one of the primary
causes of addiction. We will also explore some clinical implications.”

Friday October 4th

The Addiction Mystery (LP credit)
10am-12pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff“

This interactive session provides awareness into signs and symptoms of various addictions in
an interdisciplinary team. Using a format similar to the game Clue, the learner will analyze
evidence and team member characteristics to determine which fictitious team member is
suffering from an addiction.”

Tobacco Use: Your Role in the Interprofessional Team
1-2pm; Annis Auditorium
Open to all UIndy students, faculty, and staff

Students will participate in a “passport” style experiential activity to learn about myths and facts associated with tobacco use.