College of Nursing Receives $1.2M Grant for Interprofessional Education

CINCINNATI—The University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Nursing has been named to the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention: Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (NEPQR-IPCP) program and will receive $1.2 million in funding over three years to implement an interprofessional rounding initiative at UC Health’s University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

NEPQR-IPCP is part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is a program to address the development and advancement of the nursing workforce. The program provides grant support for academic, service and continuing education projects designed to enhance nursing education, improve the quality of patient care, increase nurse retention and strengthen the nursing workforce.

Denise Gormley, RN, PhD, assistant professor and executive director of graduate programs at the UC College of Nursing, will serve as project director. She said previous research conducted by others has found that patient safety, quality and efficiency are improved by structures and processes that promote collaboration among interprofessional teams.

"Our mission is to harness the resources of UC’s Academic Health Center to develop nurse leaders within interprofessional teams who engage with patients and families to improve health outcomes,” Gormley said. "For the delivery of quality, coordinated care and more satisfied patients, interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) is paramount.”

"I believe there is a general consensus in the health care profession that providing health care in silos is ineffective,” added Greer Glazer, PhD, dean of the UC College of Nursing. "However, it takes a concerted effort to develop collaborative and innovative processes and education that allow providers to move beyond the conventional way of doing things. This funding allows us to make significant progress toward this goal.”

Gormley and her colleagues have begun meetings and leadership training for bedside nurses and will work with UC’s App Lab on MainStreet to develop an iPad application for use during rounds with medically complex surgical patients at UC Medical Center beginning in January 2016.

"At UCMC, we are committed to providing life-changing, patient-centered care. In order to do this, we need to innovate and we need to collaborate. This partnership with the UC College of Nursing allows us to do both as health care professionals," said Jennifer Jackson, RN, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer for UC Medical Center.

UC interprofessional collaborative practice bedside team members, which will include nurses, physicians, pharmacists, discharge planners, social workers and other allied health providers as indicated by patient needs, will have access to medical records using innovative iPad mobile app technology, which will also facilitate communication, patient-care planning and teamwork among nurses, Gormley said. Patient satisfaction with the new system will be measured through surveys upon discharge. 

"This project will expand opportunities for nurses to lead and practice in team-based, interprofessional collaborative practice environments,” Gormley said.

Students for the College of Nursing and in the colleges of Pharmacy, Medicine and Allied Health Sciences also will benefit from learning health care in an interprofessional environment, Gormley said. Students enrolled in an Interprofessional Collaborative Education course shared by the four colleges of the UC Academic Health Center will have the opportunity to learn about collaboration among health care disciplines through attendance at Interprofessional Grand Rounds, an educational academic forum that will be developed as part of the HRSA NEPQR grant.