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By Kate Hunger 

More than 70 students gathered last month to learn for a first-year student interprofessional orientation—the first of its kind for the University.

Anastacia Flores, a graduate student in the nurse practitioner program in the School of Nursing, said she understands the need to connect and collaborate with other health professionals. She valued the opportunity to meet students from other programs.

“Going into the medical field, you are going to be working with other professions,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to understand how integrated this system of health care really is and to promote patient-centered care.”

The program was held Aug. 30 and included students from �����Թ�’s Schools of Health Professions, Long School of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, and Graduate Biomedical Sciences, as well as from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Students shared a meal, broke into teams to play a Pictionary-style game and listened to faculty from each of the schools present their respective professions’ scope of practice.

“There was a lot of laughter and a lot of conversation between a lot of people,” Flores said. “It had a great effect to have people open up and get to know each other.”

The event was the first the University has organized specifically to orient new students to interprofessional education, said School of Nursing Assistant Professor/Clinical Lark Ford, Ph.D., MA, MSN, BSN. Ford said the program will be offered again at the beginning of the spring and possibly summer semesters.