College of Medicine and HRS design learning and training around team science and collaboration

There is no area of medicine that is not managed through collaboration. Inpatient and outpatient care, surgery, telehealth services and biomedical research simply aren’t possible without multiple individuals working together. That is why interprofessional education, where learners from two or more health sciences programs learn from and with each other, is critical for developing health professionals.

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center immerses students from all programs, including those from The Ohio State University College of Medicine and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, (HRS), into this educational framework because of its crucial significance. A team science approach helps learners work interprofessionally and gain experience as members of a collaborative practice team. Physicians and learners work together in every stage and field to improve patient outcomes by enhancing the learning process undertaken before the patient is evaluated and treated.

With the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, the university has seven different health sciences colleges on the same campus, which leverages structural proximity and allows for these self-sufficient colleges to work together more often, each playing an important part as their members fulfill distinct roles within a much larger team delivering patient-centered care. 

“Students could focus exclusively on studying for knowledge exams and clinical skills yet still not be prepared to fully engage in patient care in 2025,” says Alex Grieco, MD, the interim vice dean for Education at the Ohio State College of Medicine. “It’s not a question of whether team science is a critical area of focus in modern health science education, but a question of how we can all centralize it and focus on it more.”

One of the ways this is accomplished is through Buckeye Interprofessional Practice and Education — Buck IPE, which is a framework built into learners’ training at the health sciences colleges. It’s based on pillars of collaboration, accountability, patient concentration and actions. Students are led through three phases that immerse them in team science education and prepare them to use their proficiency in these pillars throughout their career. Classes, simulations, trainings and activities centered around practicing interprofessional collaboration are built into coursework. Working alongside instructors and mentors from the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, participants strengthen their competency in interprofessional education, allowing them to achieve proficiency in team science by the time of their graduation.

The health sciences colleges’ faculty members consistently teach their students through evidence-based educational techniques, where students learn and execute principles that have been proven to make them more successful and able to respond quickly and effectively to whatever situations arise. One program, Excellence in Clinical Interprofessional Simulation Education (ECLIPSE), is based on the national TeamSTEPPS framework, and directly builds skills they will need in their professions. Through curriculum based on 25 years of scientific research that has been conducted on teams and team performance, the learners get hands-on experience and practice in their professional roles, gaining confidence in their abilities.

Learners have been able to see these educational methods help them in real time. At the beginning of a simulated training around responding to patients experiencing airway breathing difficulty, one group noted, “I felt like [we] moved slowly at the beginning. We didn’t claim assigned roles or know who was doing what.”

However, as they continued to practice and gain more confidence, roles were assigned, communication became seamless and everything ran more efficiently, which eliminated confusion and uncertainty.

There has been overwhelming evidence supporting a positive relationship between interprofessional education and several quality patient care measures, including length of stay, medical errors, patient satisfaction, patient or caregiver education and mortality.

Even with these programs in  place, there are still obstacles to overcome with pursuing a completely team-focused education. Students and physicians are sometimes concerned with the immediate tasks and forget that collaboration is a competency just as important as knowledge.

Georgianna Sergakis, PhD, RRT, RCP, a professor at HRS who specializes in promoting team science, says making space for collaborative experiences has challenged traditional thinking but has proven to be extremely valuable.

“It’s rethinking how we embed and value these experiences and how we think,” Dr. Sergakis says. 

Scott Holliday, MD, professor of clinical medicine and associate dean of Graduate Medical Education at the College of Medicine, has learned through his experiences that medicine is too complex for it to be practiced alone. Not collaborating with others or even collaborating poorly due to a lack of education, contributes heavily to burnout. He says that without teamwork, so much joy can be taken out of health care, and that may reduce the urge to continue growing and learning in every aspect. 

“Learning is never-ending, and every competency is worth continuing that education, especially teamwork,” Dr. Holliday says.