ACIE Award 2009
Improving Interprofessional Communication with Standardized Colleagues
Efficient communication among professionals is crucial in health care because it can affect a patient's safety and comfort. Learning this type of communication, however, is seldom incorporated into a curriculum. Susan Meyer, Pharmacy, Hollis Day, Medicine, and Helen Burns, Nursing, have developed a new method of teaching students in their respective fields to communicate usefully with other health professionals. Using standardized colleagues based on a library of various communication scenarios, students in nursing and pharmacy will be trained throughout 2009-10. This strategy is based on the successful use of standardized patients, already a mainstay in health education.
