Universitas Gadjah Mada has developed a collaborative interprofessional education program entitled Gadjah Mada on Interprofessional Education Collaborative (GM-IPEC) for students of health cluster.
The program seeks to improve collaboration competencies among medical students. Developed by several lecturers in interprofessional health through community service grants based on UGM Education for Sustainable Development, the GM-IPCE was initiated by Mumtihana Muchlis, SST., M.Kes., Midwifery lecturer, along with Dian Mufitasari, S.Psi., M.Psi., Psychologist and lecturer of Psychology, and dr. Fitriana, MSc., FM., lecturer from Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing.
“Interprofessional collaboration in health care is an essential competency for every health worker. Through this collaborative practice, it is expected to improve the quality of health human resources and provide optimal comprehensive health care outcomes,” Mumtihana explained, Tuesday (10/30).
Interprofessional Education, she continued, has been carried out at UGM through community service program with various themes but is not yet focusing on health sector. Similarly, the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing has long acquired the IPE-based Community and Family Health Care Program involving three study programs in the faculty.
In fact, she argued, UGM has a huge potential in developing IPE because it has eight health study programs, namely Medicine, Dentistry, Midwifery, Nursing, Health Nutrition, Psychology, Pharmacy, as well as Medical Records and Health Information Systems. For that reason, they took the initiative to further develop IPE by involving more disciplines to provide a more comprehensive experience to medical students.
The concept of ESD implementation is to introduce the principle of IPC to nurture interprofessional students in collaborating to solve complex health problems in the community, especially to achieve SDGs targets in 2030. This implementation includes the formation of IPE team or community (both lecturers and students), the preparation of modules, dissemination, and IPE training, to the implementation of IPEC in the community.
“The GM-IPEC program is the initial step that is expected to grow into a long-term program, either as a curricular, co-curricular, or extracurricular,” she explained.
Mumtihana added this program would also support the application of UGM Strategic Plan 2017-2022, one of which is to develop interdisciplinary education and learning as well as exposure to global competencies.
“Therefore, cooperation and support from various groups, especially faculty and university leaders, are needed so the development of IPEC can go smoothly and sustainably,” she concluded.