Columbus Publishers

International Journal of Nursing and Health Care Science

Volume 01: Issue 14

Boyce PS, et al.

simulations with and without SPs, and clinical rotations [38]. Student expressed wanting cases that feature contemporary situations that they may face in the real world [43] such as transgender health care [23] and regional specific disasters such as wildfires [41].

## CUNY HHS Virtually Simulated IPE (Sim-IPE) Pilot

Interprofessional collaboration is an essential component and a core competency across all HHS professional education programs. However, providing IPE practice-based opportunities is challenging for school programs due to limited clinical sites, faculty shortages [44,45], complex logistics, schedule coordination challenges, and lack of faculty development in the teaching of IPE [46]. The recent standstill of clinical experiences due to COVID made implementing such experiences even more challenging. The CUNY HHS Sim-IPE Pilot was designed to optimize existing challenges and opportunities presented during the pandemic, building upon documented barriers and best practices for successful IPE programing.

Recognizing that simulation is an effective platform for promoting IPE, 25 faculty representing 19 HHS disciplines across 14 campuses within CUNY rose above the surrounding chaos in spring and summer 2020 to develop the virtually-simulated IPE Pilot program. This project was created in collaboration with expertise and technical support provided by NYSIM [47]. The goals were to ensure that students successfully learned with, about and from each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes while adapting to remote learning [48]. The results of this extensive collaboration proved to be an astounding synergism of faculty engagement as a community of educators joined together, during a time of uncertainty and fear, to develop and implement Sim-IPE experiences for CUNY HHS students.

In spring 2020, the University Dean for Health and Human Services swiftly formed a university-wide CUNY HHS IPE Council to ignite a three-fold vision for IPE: 1) facilitating the development of caring HHS professionals who transform health, human and social services delivery through high quality interprofessional practice; 2) advancing CUNY academic and clinical experiential interprofessional education programs for the development of HHS profession students’ proficiencies in the four core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice; and 3) foster research and scholarship that advances interprofessional collaboration and engagement with local healthcare systems, social services, and community organization partners. The primary focus of the CUNY HHS IPE Council was to design and implement an overarching approach for IPE implementation across HHS programs using succinct conceptual approaches that would cultivate Sim-IPE case scenario designs in collaboration with NYSM.

During the inaugural meeting of the CUNY HHS IPE Council, a conceptual model and approach was confirmed by CUNY HHS and NYSIM faculty who eagerly volunteered to engage in workgroups to design, implement, and evaluate three separate Sim-IPE case scenarios. Using an unfolding case model [49], the plan was to highlight the same patient, Ann Thomas, as she transitioned from different levels of care in the healthcare system during the stages of her COVID-19 diagnosis.

## Registration

For ease of scheduling, a cloud-based spreadsheet was available to all HHS faculty to register selected students as participants and observers for a pre-determined block of 50 available sessions. Faculty were asked to self- identify if willing to serve as an IPE session facilitator, with the option to nominate students in the role of “team coordinator” or “evaluation observer” for registered sessions. Lastly, faculty were invited to select a preferred case scenario among the three available COVID-related cases.

Taking scheduling and timing into consideration, the CUNY HHS SIM-IPE Pilot intentionally provided a myriad of time options to accommodate different faculty and course needs, offering morning, afternoon and evenings time slots from Monday through Friday, and Saturday morning sessions, integrating the scheduled offerings into existing coursework or required clinical training hours, and the option of participating in sessions at alternate class times. The virtual platform and wide variability of scheduling options for the Sim- IPE sessions made scheduling more attractive and accessible to a larger number of students and faculty.

A total of 28 sessions were finalized from September 28 to December 3, 2020. An IPE session was confirmed when at least two disciplines were scheduled. Once the schedule was finalized, faculty were contacted to negotiate