The Nexus: Making a Difference Every Day
For ten years, the National Center has provided leadership, support, resources, and inspiration to those committed to expanding and improving interprofessional practice and education (IPE). One example of its influence is the incorporation of Center concepts and vocabulary like Nexus and “Interprofessional Practice and Education or the “New IPE” into the community. Significantly, as the Center has grown, so has its reach and influence–both within the US and beyond.
IPE Centers, Programs and Initiatives: 160 Strong
Across the US, the commitment to IPE is clear at both the national and community level. A variety of organizational models in support of IPE have been established by both educational institutions and health systems–thus bringing together practice and education more intentionally. To date, 160 IPE centers, programs and initiatives have been established across 46 states and the District of Columbia. With the support of the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative, an interactive IPE Center Map was developed with a full list of current IPE centers and programs.
Nexus: Understanding Local Opportunities and Impact
Andrea Pfeifle, Associate Vice Chancellor for Interprofessional Practice and Education
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical School
Brian Sick, Associate Vice President for Academic Health Sciences
University of Minnesota
NexusIPE Website and Resource Center
Since its launch in 2013, the NexusIPE website has become an information hub for those interested in interprofessional education and collaborative practice. From providing a place to share practice transformation stories to a curated measurement instrument collection to housing over 2,500 resources, the NexusIPE website and its complementary Resource Center has become a go-to international resource. Curated collections have been added to aggregate regional and topical collections, including the Dr. DeWitt C. “Bud” Baldwin Jr. Collection, the Australian and New Zealand Regional Collection and the Age-Friendly Care and Education Collection.
Customized Training and Consultations
The National Center is working to advance the way stakeholders in health work and learn together. This effort includes offering hosted webinars, site visits, workshops and consultations. A more recent focus has been continuing professional development through the National Center’s Office of Interprofessional Continuing Professional Development. Beginning in 2017, and more recently through a partnership with the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and College of Pharmacy, the National Center is a Jointly Accredited provider of continuing education for the health professions, prioritizing the development experiences that support teams in practice through workplace learning experiences that aim to ultimately improve the experience, outcomes and cost of health care.
The Nexus Summit
Since its inaugural event in 2016, the Nexis Summit has provided an opportunity to bring practitioners, educators, policy makers and consumers at every level together in one place to create interactive learning through interprofessional collaboration. From inspiring keynotes to workshops that deliver practical skills to networking with a purpose, the Nexus Summit has provided a forum to learn together while tackling challenging topics facing the field with a focus on action and outcomes.
“[The Summit] allows people from many professions to come to a Nexus meeting not only to learn from their colleagues across many professions but also to get continuing education credit which most need for relicensure or professional development,” explains Peter Vlasses, Executive Director Emeritus, Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.
Over the years, the Nexus Summit has grown and adapted to reflect the evolving needs of the field. With nearly 1000 unique abstracts submitted, over 1100 plenaries, workshops and other sessions offered and thousands of continuing education credits earned, the annual Nexus Summit has evolved from its early roots into an action-oriented learning experience designed to seed new ideas, understand outcomes and cultivate opportunities.
American Interprofessional Health Collaborative
As the professional community of the National Center, the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative (AIHC) members work locally, nationally and internationally to influence policy, develop and share best practices and resources, conduct research, mentor and support colleagues and remove barriers to effective action.
“In AIHC, we talk about leaving your professional hat at the door,” shares Chris Arenson, director of the National Center of Interprofessional Practice and Education and Member of the AIHC Executive Committee. “It's really about the team—by the team, for the team, for the people. We are focused on improving care for those we serve by ensuring our learners, our faculty and our practitioners have meaningful interprofessional and collaborative experiences.”
While AIHC officially became a professional organization in 2015, its roots date back to 2007 through a collaboration among institutions and individuals committed to preserving the field. The University of Minnesota - and later the National Center - provided the infrastructure and support for AIHC to grow and mature. Today, AIHC and the National Center continue to work together to share expertise, drive change and build relationships to cultivate leaders in interprofessional practice and education. .
International Reach
From its creation, the National Center has worked collaboratively with international peers and partners to ensure we are learning lessons from and building upon what has been learned from previous contributions to the field. While the focus has largely been on fulfilling the needs of US-based IPE professionals at every level as they traverse through an ever complex and changing healthcare landscape in the US., a growing international audience has emerged.
In more recent years, the National Center and its NexusIPE platform have been increasingly utilized as a resource internationally to support global advancements in IPE.
Interprofessional.Global is a Global Confederation for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice. This group facilitates support and exchange between regional interprofessional education and collaborative practice networks, establishes relationships with other like-minded organizations and welcomes and supports new networks sharing the same aims and values at the regional and international level. Interprofessional.Global is comprised of nine regional and three emerging IPE networks across the globe. AIHC serves as the member representing the United States of America.
Global Impact of the National Center
John Gilbert
Founding Director, College of Health Disciplines
University of British Columbia
As the National Center continues to grow its partnerships both internationally and nationally, the impact and reach of the Center’s work is poised to grow. Learn more about what’s next for the National Center.