Article reposted from Misericordia University
Author: Misericordia University
Leamor Kahanov, Ed.D., A.T.C., L.A.T., dean of the College of Health Sciences and Education at Misericordia University, is making two scholarly presentations at the All Together Better Health VIII: The Global Interprofessional Practice and Education Conference in Oxford, England.
The eighth annual conference is being hosted by the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University. Conference events are a platform where practitioners, service users, teachers, managers, policymakers and researchers compare perspectives, exchanges experiences, and pool resources in response to needs everywhere to effect change, enhance quality, and improve safety in care, according to All Together Better Health.
Dr. Kahanov is making the presentations entitled, “Leveraging a Campus Clinic to Expand Interprofessional Education and Research,” and “Interprofessional Education through Mobile Outreach Clinics.”
In her first presentation, Dr. Kahanov explains how interprofessional care has become a required component among many health care education programs. She also acknowledges that national organizations have likewise identified the importance of interprofessional teams in the delivery of quality, safe health care. Due to limited fieldwork opportunities, educational institutions, such as Misericordia University, have had to create their own interprofessional clinical experiences for students by establishing on-campus clinics.
The “Interprofessional Education through Mobile Outreach Clinics” presentation outlines the importance of creating an interprofessional environment for clinical experiences, and how to accomplish it through the formation of several mobile outreach clinics. Misericordia University, for example, created small, mobile interprofessional clinical experiences that centered on addressing the health care needs in the aging and autistic communities. The hands-on learning opportunities include a falls prevention clinic, autism sensory camp, autism workforce program, migrant worker clinic, Parkinson and stroke treatment program, and a chronic pain program located at regional nursing homes, community centers and schools.
More than 120 Misericordia University students participate annually in these clinical rotations, and provide more than $750,000 in free clinical services. In the near future, Misericordia plans add financial counseling, art, and patient navigation to the patient-centered mobile clinics in order to enhance a broader understanding of interprofessional care, according to Dr. Kahanov.
Dr. Kahanov is a certified athletic trainer with a doctorate in education from the University of San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif. She earned a master’s degree in exercise and sports sciences from the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz., and a Bachelor of Science degree in exercise science and athletic training from Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.
The Misericordia University College of Health Sciences and Education offers bachelor, master and clinical doctorate degree programs, as well as certificate programs in specialized areas. The areas include the departments of education, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, medical imaging, speech-language pathology, health informatics, medical imaging and diagnostic medical sonography, as well as the Assistive Technology Research Institute.