Students, staff, and faculty from across various University of South Florida and USF
Health colleges gathered at the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation
(CAMLS) for the USF Health 6th Annual Interprofessional Education Day.
In the wake of a global pandemic, burnout and a variety of other mental health problems
are contributing factors to hospitals being understaffed. This year’s theme “Caring
for Caregivers: Fostering Mental Health and Wellness in Interprofessional Teams” focused
on solutions to help combat those issues and improve the quality of patient care across
the profession.
“Our USF IPE Day working group felt it was critical to focus on this topic given the current challenges that our health care system is facing with health care professionals leaving their professions, increased provider burnout, and high rates of mental health issues including depression and suicide,” said Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, executive director of CAMLS and associate vice president of the USF Health Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice.
Approximately 700 people (500 virtually, 200 in-person) attended the morning presentations
by industry experts. Jennifer Bickel MD, FAAN, FAHS, chief wellness officer at Moffitt
Cancer Center and professor of oncologic sciences in the USF Health Morsani College
of Medicine, was the first featured speaker of the morning. Her presentation “Organizational
Wellness: Expanding the Horizon of Wellbeing” highlighted key statistical data on
the volume of patients seen by a provider experiencing burnout and steps the National
Academy of Medicine are taking to increase wellness across the workforce.
Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, FAAN, PMHCNS/NP-BC, followed Dr. Bickel. Dr. Westphal
is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing and co-director of
the Wisdom and Wellbeing Program at UVA Health. His presentation “Stress First Aid:
Nurturing Resilience in Health Care Professionals” focused on sources of mental stress,
how the mind reacts to the stress, and team-based solutions centered around wellbeing.
Judy Davidson, DNP, RN, MCCM, a nurse scientist at the University of California-San
Diego, was the final featured speaker of the morning. Her presentation “Saving Lives:
Suicide Prevention and Health Care Interventions” focused on the suicide rates of
health care professionals, re-imagining some of the available interventional tools,
and changing the mental health-related questions on licensing boards.
The morning sessions ended after Donna Petersen, ScD, MHS, CPH, dean of the USF Health
College of Public Health, senior associate vice president of USF Health, and chief
health officer of USF, led an interprofessional panel discussion themed “Unlocking
Wellness: Exploring a Toolkit for Inner Balance and Resilience.” Panelists gave their
perspective on the importance of health care professionals working with a healthy
work-life balance, how better work-life balance will lead to better work environments
and more positive patient outcomes.
Panelists:
- Kelly Allegro, PT, DPT, board-certified clinical specialist in neurologic
physical therapy, co-director of clinical education at the USF Health School of Physical
Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences
- Kristin Kosyluk, PhD, assistant professor of Mental Health Law and Policy
in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the Louis de la Parte Florida
Mental Health Institute, director of the STigma Action Research (STAR) Lab
- Abraham A. Salinas-Miranda, MD, PhD, MACE, CDVS, assistant professor, director
of the Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence, associate director of the
USF Health College of Public Health Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health
Education Science and Practice
- Chris Simmons, PhD, LCSW, associate director and associate professor, USF
College of Behavioral and Community Sciences School of Social Work.
Anthony Masys, CD, PhD, associate professor at the USF Health College of Public Health.
Kicking off the afternoon was Anthony Masys, CD, PhD, associate professor at the USF
Health College of Public Health, and an international expert in applied systems thinking,
design thinking, and futures thinking. He gave his presentation titled “Strength-Based
Approach: Appreciative Inquiry.” Appreciative inquiry is more commonly known as a
strength-based approach to systems change as it emphasizes generating positive ideas
instead of identifying negative problems.
Part of the appreciative inquiry model is using rich pictures to help diagram a way
of relating personal experiences and perceptions to situations by linking a series
of concepts.
Dr. Masys’ presentation provided the foundation of the group activity and team competition
for the event.
Students split into interprofessional teams of nine to put the concept of appreciative
inquiry to practice. Students shared good and bad examples of wellbeing in their
workspaces and colleges, offered solutions on how to enhance the good examples, and
improve the bad examples.
With the guidance of their faculty preceptors, teams used rich pictures to generate
mind maps that illustrated how they plan to improve the overall provider wellbeing
of an organization. Using a “Shark Tank” format, the teams presented their concepts
to the sharks in hopes they will buy their concept.
Sharks (judges):
- Karen Aul, PhD, RN, CNE, CHSE, USF Health College of Nursing
- Jennifer Bickel MD, FAAN, FAHS, Moffitt Cancer Center
- Somer Burke, EdD, MPH, CPH, USF Health College of Public Health
- Joe Ford, JD, USF Health Shared Student Services
- Vickie Lynn, PhD, MSW, MPH, USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
The IPE Day group activity is designed to encourage interprofessional collaboration
among learners through hands-on activity. Teams worked together to conceptualize
a strategic vision for how wellness can be operationalized to support organizational
and personal wellness. The goals of the activity were to:
- Understand the application of appreciative inquiry as a strength-based approach
to navigating various solutions in the health care domain.
- Apply a system-thinking approach via rich pictures to support ideation in
exploring the problem space from an interdisciplinary perspective.
- Translate insights from the rich pictures into a mind map to develop a strategic
implementation strategy supporting wellness.
One by one, teams presented their concept to the sharks. Teams had three minutes to
make compelling arguments about why their concept is the best.
The sharks narrowed down the field to three teams who then had to prepare a one-minute elevator pitch of their concept to give to the audience. Audience members voted for the winner electronically at the end of the pitches. When the votes were counted, team five emerged as the winners. Their approach focused on a solution that centered around employees find balance within their work environment.
Winning team:
Erini Serag-Bolos, PharmD, associate professor at the USF Health Taneja College of
Pharmacy (Preceptor)
Camilla Cardona, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Physician Assistant Program
Hayden Euper, USF Health School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences
Christopher Guskie, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
Rebekah Minter, USF Health Athletic Training Program
Madison Moua, USF Health College of Public Health
Paul Munoz, School of Social Work, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Amiah Price, USF Health College of Nursing
Jenna Sabbagh, USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy
The names of the winning team will the engraved on the IPE Day trophy. As the team
preceptor, Dr. Serag-Bolos will keep the trophy in her office until the USF Health
7th Annual IPE Day.
