ACHHS Interprofessional Education Fund

The Archer College of Health and Human Services Interprofessional Education Committee was established in January of 2026. 

The Interprofessional Education (IPE) Committee hosted its first event on April 17th, 2026. The event focused on allowing healthcare students to practice and enhance the skills they will be expected to perform as future healthcare professionals. (Read the article: Health Professions Students Participate in First Campus IPE Event.)

“We believe that by bringing together students and educators from multiple healthcare specialties, we can enhance not only the students’ clinical skills, but also collaboration, communication and teamwork that will have a lasting effect on these students and improve the health outcomes of their future patients”

- Dr. Jesse McIntyre

Overseen by Dr. Katie Lyman, the Dean of the Archer College of Health and Human Services, Archer College professors and clinical instructors, Shannon physician residents,  and community leaders:

Students learned to handle athletes or civilians with neck and/or back injuries; safely getting the patient onto a board and working as a team to transport the injured party. 

Students learned how to transport patients in the hospital and work with injuries and injured patients. 

Students learned to distinguish patterns in symptoms and connections between cases to discover the source and mode of disease transmission to best prevent disease outbreak as part of a public health simulation.

Students learned to distinguish the signs of someone in emotional distress and techniques to deescalate the situation.

Students learned how to recognize and report child abuse in a workshop conducted by Yolanda Torres, Education Specialist, of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Greater West Texas.

The IPEC Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice include:

• Values and Ethics: Work with team members to maintain a climate of shared values, ethical conduct, and mutual respect.
• Roles and Responsibilities: Use the knowledge of one's own role and team members' expertise to address individual and population health outcomes.
• Communication: Communicate in a responsive, responsible, respectful, and compassionate manner with team members.
• Teams and Teamwork: Apply values and principles of the science of teamwork to adapt one's own role in a variety of team settings.