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Salus at Drexel University students interested in a professional development opportunity can choose to enter the Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPCPe) program.
Salus/Drexel developed and offered the IPCPe program as a professional development opportunity for students to acquire and practice competencies required for collaborative care. These include attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors.
Those interested attend a series of four Interprofessional Learning Activities (IPLAs), which are scheduled during non-didactic sessions. There are no credits or grades. Students who successfully complete all four IPLAs, in sequential order, are awarded four micro credential badges, one for each of the four core competencies - Values and Ethics, Roles and Responsibilities, Communication, and Teams and Teamwork, plus a fifth, culminating badge.
Students who have completed the program rave about it. Here from them directly:
Pragna Saripudi ‘28OD
An international student, Pragna Saripudi ‘28OD, has been curious about the health care system in the United States. An already established optometrist in her home country of India, in addition to being a cancer survivor, Dr. Saripudi, wanted to learn as much as she could about how to help her patients and how to better understand her personal health care journey.
“Salus gave me the opportunity to understand this interprofessional collaboration while I was a student here,” she said. “It’s very helpful for me to sit with students from other programs and understand what they do. I really had a good experience in this program.”
Being part of the program provided her with different perspectives from those in other programs, like Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology and Orthotics and Prosthetics.
“It’s a common goal for the entire team and if you communicate well, you can provide better care for your patients,” she said. “Also, I made some friends in the other professions. I can give them a call about a patient and they can share their opinions with me. This will help both me and my patients improve our lives in a better way.”
Christopher Lynch ‘27O&P
He earned a degree in economics from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, in 2010. With years of professional experience under his belt Christopher Lynch ‘27O&P shifted careers by enrolling in the Orthotics and Prosthetics program at Salus/Drexel. He had already spent considerable time talking with professionals from different backgrounds. So, he wanted to see what the Salus/Drexel IPCPe was all about.
“After the first session, I knew it would ultimately give me better tools to work with the people involved in patient care,” said Lynch, whose father was an orthotist for more than 40 years. “There was a focus on specific sub-competencies that drove home aspects of good patient care especially good communication, and valuing other professionals’ opinions.”
He also noted that while you might not be familiar with their area of expertise, you have to learn to trust them and their experiences.
“Learning how to communicate effectively and to take feedback as well, while remembering the primary goal is to do the best you can for the patient,” he said.
Emily Turner ‘28AUD
She was aiming for a career in speech-language pathology, but when she took her first audiology class at Penn State, a switch flipped on for Emily Turner ‘28AUD.
One of her early audiology teachers was Maegan Mapes, AuD ‘03, a graduate of what was then a relatively new Audiology program at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) School of Audiology. It was Dr. Mapes who sang the praises of her alma mater’s Audiology program, and it was more than enough to convince Turner to enroll.
“I came across the IPLA program through an email and I am a sucker for resume-builders. I decided that it was something I really wanted to get involved in. I wanted to expand my horizons and try something that I hadn’t tried before,” said Turner. “A big part of my career is going to be working with other professionals.”
Turner believes opting for the IPCPe program will give her a leg up when she starts her professional career.
“What I really liked about it was I’m on the younger side for my program and some of the students I worked with already have had professional experience,” she said. “I learned a lot from them. They have seen what really happens out in the field. It was cool to hear from people who have been out there, seen it, and have come back to school.”
To learn more about each IPLA, visit the . For questions about the IPCPe micro credential badge program, contact Ryan Hollister, MS, director of Bennett Career Services Center, Salus at Drexel University, at rth37@drexel.edu.
