Melissa Hilmes, M.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, has been named co-director of the Vanderbilt Program in Interprofessional Learning (VPIL). She has been a member of the VPIL faculty since 2015, serving as a course director and interprofessional coach for medical students. Beginning June 1, 2018, she will co-lead the program with Shannon Cole, DNP, APRN-BC, Instructor in Nursing, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN).
VPIL is a two-year program designed for students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and social work. Students assemble in teams of four – one from each discipline – to collaborate on clinical- and classroom-based activities for one half-day each week throughout the duration of the program. The ultimate goal of the program is for students to learn from and with each other so that they can improve health care delivery and outcomes.
“Successful diagnostic imaging and interventions is an interprofessional practice,” said Dr. Hilmes. “For example, at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, radiologists, technologists, nurses, child life specialists and medical physicists come together to provide optimal services to patients. My VPIL experience endorses the successful interprofessional practice, as a team of professionals operating at the top of their profession is better for patient care.”
Cole said the skills students learn are ones they will rely on throughout their careers. “Interprofessional education prepares students for the collaborative practice necessary to manage the complex needs of an aging society,” she said. “As VPIL’s clinic coordinator, I have been tasked with finding authentic, clinical, learning environments in a health care system where collaboration rarely exists. After nine years, I can tell you that this program has been transformative for students, preceptors and faculty.”
VPIL was established in 2010 with a Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation grant awarded to Principle Investigators Bonnie Miller, M.D., MMHC, Senior Associate Dean for Health Science Education and Executive Vice President for Educational Affairs, and Linda Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, VUSN Dean and Valere Potter Menefee Professor of Nursing.
Each year, approximately 40 students from Vanderbilt University Schools of Medicine and Nursing, Lipscomb University and Tennessee State University are invited to participate. Clinic sites include an obstetrics clinics concentrating on a drug-addicted population, the Comprehensive Care Center for HIV/AIDS patients, primary care and subspeciality clinics.
For more information, please visit medschool.vanderbilt.edu/vpil.
Left to right: Melissa Hilmes, M.D., and Shannon Cole, DNP, APRN-BC (Photo by Joe Howell)
