College of Education graduate students and FACS interns collaborate on interprofessional education exercise

Graduate students in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s athletic training and speech-language pathology programs recently collaborated with dietetics interns in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences on an interdisciplinary education exercise.

The goal of the exercise was to illustrate the link between disciplines in the health field through teamwork between students, as well as the overlap in their fields and how collaboration benefits patient outcomes.

Directed by nutritional sciences faculty member Lauren Housley, the exercise also included three faculty members from the College:

• Bud Cooper, clinical professor and clinical education coordinator, Department of Kinesiology
• Jill Manners, clinical associate professor and athletic training program director, Department of Kinesiology
• T.J. Ragan, clinical associate professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders; director, Speech and Hearing Clinic

“What a unique opportunity for students from a variety of healthcare backgrounds getting together and sharing their expertise in their respective disciplines,” Cooper said. “By continuing to promote interdisciplinary education, our students will grow and have a greater understanding of the importance of networking with a variety of healthcare fields to provide the best in patient care!”

At this event and other interprofessional education (IPE) seminars, the focus included collaboration between fields as well as between individuals.

“We hope that our students not only learn more about collaborative teaming in healthcare from these IPE seminars, but also that they make connections with one another and form professional relationships that can be sources of support throughout their careers,” Ragan said.

View the photo album from the event on the UGA FACS Flickr page.