Why IHSO? Voices of our founders

IHSO was founded at the University of Michigan in 2013 by student leaders from multiple health professional schools. Here are some of our stories:

Eddie Heath (Dentistry, Founding President)

My name is Dr. Edward A. Heath and graduated from University of Michigan, School of Dentistry in 2014. My goal is to give you a brief understanding of why I decided to collaborate with other student leaders of this great university to form an inter-professional heath student organization:

In today’s world of health care, collaboration among different disciplines is becoming more prevalent and essential. Enrichment programs such as Profile for Success (PFS), Summer Medical and Dental Educational Program (SMDEP) and pre-health student organizations illustrate the need for bridging the gap between various health professions. These enrichment programs and student organizations, which I participated in before dental school, are at the undergraduate level and prime students for thinking in compartmentalized ways. During this time, students hope to provide the best health care for their patients, but are isolated from their professional counterparts instead of working cohesively as a unit. For example, SMDEP and PFS students were routinely placed in separate rooms for study time, learning activities or labs. These enrichment programs closely resembled the health care system and how it is broken into divisions that are not later linked together for the benefit of the patient. It is important to teach the skills and significance of integrating the various health fields before students are out in the real world of health care practice.

The field of dentistry has spent many years (approximately 170 years), particularly the last five decades, understanding and improving applications to better care for their patients. This evolution is great for the profession, but the lack of interdisciplinary communications has not provided the best possible care for our patients. The Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health in 2000 expressed the importance of oral health and that “The oral cavity is a portal of entry as well as the site of disease for microbial infections that affect general health status.” With that said, an individual cannot be “healthy” unless their oral heath status is good. This is just one example why health care professionals need to come together to learn about all professions as well as how to communicate with each other.

I thought the movement could start here at the University of Michigan with our student leaders from each health professional school. With the creation of an inter-professional organization here on campus, this may eliminate the disconnect between each profession at the student level. For instance, the hope is that dentists, along with other professions, will no longer stay out of the system and work as one powerful unit. Our health professionals are now being challenged by patients on what they see from the media or online. Therefore, we hoped that inter-professional student forum would bridge the gap by educating within the profession and, if I will, “be on the same page.” Therefore, professional student leaders from the University of Michigan came together to make a change in the way we see healthcare today.

In 2010, University of Michigan School of Dentistry and College of Pharmacy were looking to make changes to their curriculum in order to better the educational process for current and future students. For example, in the dental school, students from the Class of 2014 were encouraged to choose one of the three pathways: Research, Leadership, or Healthcare Delivery (HCD) Pathway. The Leadership Pathway (I chose this pathway!) empowers dental students to imagine and promote cultural changes in dentistry as well as develop their skills in strategic thinking, communication, problem solving, and interdisciplinary teamwork. The HCD pathway immerses students in the science of professional development and expects students to observe and compare several specialties, techniques, and practice models within the field. The student-led inter-professional health initiative falls into the Leadership pathway because we hope to promote a cultural expansion in the healthcare system.

During the time that our core group was forming (2012-2013), associate deans of the Dental, Pharmacy, Nursing, Medical, and Social Work schools were forming their own inter-professional group to discuss these trends and how health profession educators can prepare future clinicians for team-based patient care. Once we were aware of this group of associate deans and professors, our student leaders realized that this was a great opportunity to learn from them and grow at the student-level. We met with our assistant deans to discuss our ideas to create an Interprofessional Health Student Organization (IHSO). They were very pleased and encouraged us to move forward with this leadership project. IHSO was created immediately after this meeting.

Silu Zuo (Pharmacy, Founding Vice President)

Collaboration among healthcare professionals has become an integral part of the patient care as the healthcare system becomes increasingly complex. As a pharmacy student at the University of Michigan, our curriculum at the time was internally focused. Our Doctor of Pharmacy program is one of the smallest health professional schools on campus, with only about 80-85 students per class. We did not share didactic nor experiential learning with others health professions until our 4th year rotations. In 2012, during my 3rd year of pharmacy school, our largest student organization, American Pharmacists’ Association – Academy of Student Pharmacists, collaborated with the Medical School and School of Nursing for a community health fair. This was one of our first experiences working closely with other health students and was also where I discovered we really knew little about each others’ experiences in training and as future healthcare professionals to be. I wondered why University of Michigan, with some of the highest-ranked health professional schools in the nation, had very little interdisciplinary interaction in our training. I made it my goal before leaving pharmacy school to bring health professional students together for this purpose.

Later that year, I met Eddie on an Ann Arbor city bus. We started talking and realized we shared the same vision of bringing together students from other health professions. My idea was to bring together our schools in a forum-style discussion to introduce each other to our education and curriculum. Eddie’s vision was to create a student organization for students from health professional schools for interdisciplinary learning. We decided to meet again to make my forum idea the catalyst and first meeting to the student organization.

After gathering team leaders from nursing and medicine, the first meeting of what would become IHSO took place on January 13, 2016– the Interprofessional Heath Student Forum. Over 64 students from the School of Dentistry, Medical School, School of Nursing, and College of Pharmacy attended. We shared our experiences and discussed questions about perception of health professions, patient care in our curricula, and our visions and desires for inter-professional education. The response was overwhelmingly positive and this provided an avenue for the creation of IHSO within the next year.

I am incredibly pleased to see the growth and support of IHSO and interprofessional collaboration at U of M, including partnership with other disciplines from School of Public Health, Kinesiology, and Social Work, and the addition of interdisciplinary education in the curricula of several health professional schools. Developing relationships with and understanding one another as students will only engender cohesiveness when working together after graduation to achieve our ultimate goal of delivering the best patient care.

I currently work as a clinical pharmacist in primary care clinics at UW Medicine/Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. I work and communicate with doctors, nurses, social workers, dentists, case managers, physical therapists, medical assistants, interpreters, and a host of other professions on a regular basis. Having the insight into their experiences and those I have met at U of M through IHSO makes me appreciate even more what we all do to play an integral role in the care of patients.

Lizzie Levine (Nursing, IHSO Founding Secretary)

​ I joined IHSO and became secretary as a senior at University of Michigan's School of Nursing. I was approached to join the team, as the School of Nursing needed to be represented in the organization. It was an amazing experience to be a leader in my nursing community, and I learned a multitude about other health professions and the education necessary to earn them. I represented the nursing students in our committee meetings, bringing a different perspective to discussions and programs. IHSO completed educational programs collaborating our nursing, medical, pharmacy, and dental programs​, providing speakers and information to the attendees from the different programs. The program even allowed me to use my contacts within the dental school to assist me in a community health nursing project educating older adults regarding dental health. Involvement with IHSO has empowered me to strive to work closer with the physicians and pharmacists that I deal with on a daily basis at the Neonatal ICU in which I work, and has helped me understand the differences in professions and training allow for an even better cooperative patient care.