Interprofessional education opportunities have been offered in many formats on the University of South Carolina campus since 2009. In the 2023-2024 academic year, almost 1,200 health professional students participated in at least one interprofessional activity. Over the last 15 years, IPE activities have expanded from a single student organization — the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open School — that offered elective programming to a wide variety of opportunities.
College of Pharmacy students now have continuous exposure to interprofessional opportunities woven throughout all four years of pharmacy school. IPE experiences incorporate four Collaborative Core Competencies — Values and Ethics, Roles and Responsibilities, Communication, and Teams and Teamwork — to ensure students are exposed to each component to build confidence and competency over time.
Health professions taking part in IPE courses include athletic training, cardiovascular technology, genetic counseling, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, speech language pathology, social work and public health as well as health administration.
USC’s program offers diverse interprofessional education opportunities across all years of study, covering topics such as “Transforming Healthcare for the Future, “Geriatric Medication Review” and the “SWEET-DM” diabetes education class. Students can participate in elective opportunities including IHI Open School and SC AHEC Institute events, the CLARION Clinical Case Competition and an HIV/ Immunology clinical rotation.
Transforming Healthcare for the Future has been offered since 2012, starting with pharmacy and medical students. This course has expanded to 12 health professions and has been revised over time to include specific modules for each of the four core competencies.
Small interprofessional student teams work through case scenarios, discussing the differences and similarities across their professions, and meet three times throughout the semester for more in-depth discussions. Despite having more than 500 students each semester, we also meet in person at least once for more meaningful collaboration.
Additionally, second-year pharmacy students meet with second-year medical and physician assistant students for a two-hour class, working through an elderly patient case scenario. They share their approaches to the patient’s health concerns by profession, then determine how they can collaborate to improve health outcomes. New this year, a panel of health professionals specializing in elder care will offer their perspectives to the case and their interprofessional collaboration in practice.
Another new endeavor at USC is participation in the national CLARION Case Competition where small teams of health professional students present solutions to a complex health scenario highlighting interprofessional collaboration. USC’s first two teams, comprised of medical, pharmacy and athletic training students earned first place in 2024 and third place in 2025.
IPE stakeholders at USC continuously work to improve the quality and quantity of meaningful interprofessional opportunities.
About the author:
Betsy Blake is the director of interprofessional education and a clinical associate professor for the College of Pharmacy.
Topics: Pharm.D. Program, Experiential Learning