Students, staff and faculty from across the various University of South Florida and USF Health colleges gathered at the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) for the USF Health 6th Annual Interprofessional Education Day. 

In the wake of a global pandemic, burnout and a variety of other mental health problems are contributing factors to hospitals being understaffed. This year’s theme “Caring for Caregivers: Fostering Mental Health and Wellness in Interprofessional Teams” focused on solutions to help combat those issues and improve the quality of patient care across the profession.   

“Our USF IPE Day working group felt it was critical to focus on this topic given the current challenges that our health care system is facing with health care professionals leaving their professions, increased provider burnout and high rates of mental health issues, including depression and suicide,” said Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, executive director of CAMLS and associate vice president of the USF Health Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice.

Approximately 700 people (500 virtually, 200 in person) attended the morning presentations by industry experts.  Jennifer Bickel, MD, FAAN, FAHS, chief wellness officer at Moffitt Cancer Center and professor of oncologic sciences in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, was the first featured speaker of the morning. Her presentation “Organizational Wellness: Expanding the Horizon of Well-being” highlighted key statistical data on the volume of patients seen by a provider experiencing burnout and steps the National Academy of Medicine is taking to increase wellness across the workforce.  

Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, FAAN, PMHCNS/NP-BC, followed Dr. Bickel.  Dr. Westphal is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing and co-director of the Wisdom and Wellbeing Program at UVA Health.  His presentation “Stress First Aid: Nurturing Resilience in Health Care Professionals” focused on sources of mental stress, how the mind reacts to the stress and team-based solutions centered around well-being. 

Judy Davidson, DNP, RN, MCCM, a nurse scientist at the University of California-San Diego, was the final featured speaker of the morning. Her presentation “Saving Lives: Suicide Prevention and Health Care Interventions” focused on the suicide rates of health care professionals, re-imagining some of the available interventional tools and changing the mental health-related questions on licensing boards. 
 
The morning sessions ended after Donna Petersen, ScD, MHS, CPH, dean of the USF Health College of Public Health, senior associate vice president of USF Health and chief health officer of USF, led an interprofessional panel discussion themed “Unlocking Wellness: Exploring a Toolkit for Inner Balance and Resilience.”  Panelists gave their perspectives on the importance of health care professionals working with a healthy work-life balance and how a better work-life balance will lead to better work environments and more positive patient outcomes. 
 
Panelists: 
–        Kelly Allegro, PT, DPT, board-certified clinical specialist in neurologic physical therapy, co-director of clinical education at the USF Health School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences
–        Kristin Kosyluk, PhD, assistant professor of Mental Health Law and Policy in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, director of the STigma Action Research (STAR) Lab
–        Abraham A. Salinas-Miranda, MD, PhD, MACE, CDVS, assistant professor, director of the Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence, associate director of the USF Health College of Public Health Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Education Science and Practice
–        Chris Simmons, PhD, LCSW, associate director and associate professor, USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences School of Social Work

Anthony Masys, CD, PhD, associate professor at the USF Health College of Public Health.

Kicking off the afternoon was Anthony Masys, CD, PhD, associate professor at the USF Health College of Public Health and an international expert in applied systems thinking, design thinking and futures thinking. He gave his presentation titled “Strength-Based Approach: Appreciative Inquiry.” Appreciative inquiry is more commonly known as a strength-based approach to systems change as it emphasizes generating positive ideas instead of identifying negative problems.  

Part of the appreciative inquiry model is using rich pictures to help diagram a way of relating personal experiences and perceptions to situations by linking a series of concepts.  
 
Dr. Masys’ presentation provided the foundation of the group activity and team competition for the event. 

Students split into interprofessional teams of nine to put the concept of appreciative inquiry into practice. Students shared good and bad examples of well-being in their workspaces and colleges and offered solutions on how to enhance the good examples and improve the bad examples.  
 
With the guidance of their faculty preceptors, teams used rich pictures to generate mind maps that illustrated how they plan to improve the overall provider well-being of an organization. Using a “Shark Tank” format, the teams presented their concepts to the sharks in hopes they will buy their concept. 

Sharks (judges):
–        Karen Aul, PhD, RN, CNE, CHSE, USF Health College of Nursing
–        Jennifer Bickel, MD, FAAN, FAHS, Moffitt Cancer Center
–        Somer Burke, EdD, MPH, CPH, USF Health College of Public Health
–        Joe Ford, JD, USF Health Shared Student Services
–        Vickie Lynn, PhD, MSW, MPH, USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
 
The IPE Day group activity was designed to encourage interprofessional collaboration among learners through hands-on activity. Teams worked together to conceptualize a strategic vision for how wellness can be operationalized to support organizational and personal wellness. The goals of the activity were to:
–        Understand the application of appreciative inquiry as a strength-based approach to navigating various solutions in the health care domain.
–        Apply a system-thinking approach via rich pictures to support ideation in exploring the problem space from an interdisciplinary perspective.
–        Translate insights from the rich pictures into a mind map to develop a strategic implementation strategy supporting wellness. 
 
One by one, teams presented their concept to the sharks. Teams had three minutes to make compelling arguments about why their concept is the best. 

The sharks narrowed down the field to three teams who then had to prepare a one-minute elevator pitch of their concept to give to the audience. Audience members voted for the winner electronically at the end of the pitches. When the votes were counted, Team Five emerged as the winner. The team’s approach focused on a solution that centered around employees finding balance within their work environment. 

Winning team:
Erini Serag-Bolos, PharmD, associate professor at the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy (Preceptor)
Camilla Cardona, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Physician Assistant Program
Hayden Euper, USF Health School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences
Christopher Guskie, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
Rebekah Minter, USF Health Athletic Training Program
Madison Moua, USF Health College of Public Health
Paul Munoz, School of Social Work, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Amiah Price, USF Health College of Nursing
Jenna Sabbagh, USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy

The names of the winning team will the engraved on the IPE Day trophy.  As the team preceptor, Dr. Serag-Bolos will keep the trophy in her office until the USF Health 7th Annual IPE Day. 

Story reposted from USF Health

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Each year the USF College of Public Health’s (COPH) Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health chooses six graduate students to become MCH Student Leadership Scholars.

Despite the pandemic, the scholars pressed on, taking part in a specialized curriculum and individualized, professional-development activities, albeit all remotely.

But that virtual format had its perks, say both program organizers and student scholars.

“The remote delivery of the leadership meetings and seminars allowed all COPH students, faculty, staff and community partners to take part, increasing the reach to over 50 attendees for many sessions,” said Dr. Cheryl Vamos, a COPH associate professor and director of the Center. “And the pandemic was a real-life case study like no other, underscoring the unique health and development needs of those most vulnerable—including women, children and families.”

First-year MPH student and MCH Scholar Isabela Solis agrees that the remote format had its advantages.

“For me, having this experience remote was a wonderful thing,” she said. “I took all that I learned and looked at how I can apply it in the city where I am from and from where I did the program. That was a unique advantage.”

The goal of the MCH Student Leadership Scholars program, according to its grant proposal, is “to develop an emerging group of highly skilled and diverse MCH leaders to achieve optimal MCH outcomes and to advance MCH education, science and practice.”

Each year in the early summer, says Dr. Abraham Salinas-Miranda, associate director of the Center, the college puts out a call for scholars, who begin the program in the fall. The benefits, both he and Vamos say, are severalfold and include:

• Individualized leadership plans
• Mentoring
• Research internships
• Leadership meetings with MCH and other public health leaders at local, state and national levels
• Seminars across several topics (e.g., health literacy, conflict management, cultural competency, etc.)
• Professional development opportunities
• Networking
• Tuition waiver and stipend

“The goal of the progam is to grow students into leaders dedicated to improving health among women, children, families and communities,” said Vamos, who is also an alumna of the COPH. “There is also a special emphasis on decreasing health disparities and improving health equity.”

Haley Maxwell, a graduating MPH student, found the hands-on experience and close mentoring of particular value.

“One of the major highlights of this experience was being able to engage with community organization leaders through the help of my faculty mentor, Dr. [Ronee] Wilson,” Maxwell said. “It was insightful to learn how quality improvement, grants, IRB [Institutional Review Board] proposals and program evaluations are carried out in a real-life setting. The advantage of the program is being able to work with a faculty mentor whom I look up to. I was always amazed at the work Dr. Wilson had done, so I felt incredibly fortunate when we were matched for this program.”

Medinah Nabadduka, a second-year MPH student, appreciates the leadership experience the program has given her.

“Through the MCH Scholar program, I have learned different leadership skills from successful leaders in the MCH field,” Nabadduka said. “My biggest takeaway from the leaders is that it is always important to make people the top priority, then everything else will take care of itself. Another key takeaway is to be humble and to learn from others. Before participating in the MCH Scholar program I was uncomfortable with the thought of being a leader because I like to work behind the scenes. But now I view a leader as someone who serves as a guide and who [considers] everyone’s best interest.”

You can learn more about this year’s cohort of MCH Scholars here. The COPH community is also invited to the scholars’ final presentation celebration, accessible via Microsoft Teams, on Friday, May 14, from 2-4 p.m.S

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Publc Health

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