Interprofessional Experience
What is the IPE?
The Interprofessional Experience (or IPE) is a collaborative method to develop students as future team members working with colleagues from different fields. The IPE provides Master of Public Health students with an opportunity to participate in an interactive learning experience with two or more disciplines represented. IPE is a requirement of the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) for all accredited schools of public health and a recommendation suggested by the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
At GW, the IPE usually involves some pre-work and culminates in a day-long workshop and is a graduation requirement.
2024 IPE Event
The 2024 IPE Event occurred on January 26th, and the topic was evaluating state responses to the SCOTUS' Dobbs decision and the overturn of Roe v. Wade. In this MCH Policy & Advocacy IPE, students took a deep dive into the post-Roe world, collaboratively exploring the past, present, and possible futures of state and federal policies on reproductive healthcare and abortion access to determine the possible short- and long-term implications of various state-level changes in abortion access and rights.
This year, our GW Center of Excellence successfully delivered an IPE event on January 27, 2023, which we developed in conjunction with Health Policy professors who are part of our Center faculty, with support from two student graduate student assistants.
The topic for the IPE event was the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade decision and the impacts that decision may have on child and maternal health outcomes at the state level. The goal was to collaboratively raise questions and identify policy solutions to the possible short- and long-term health implications of various state-level changes in abortion access and reproductive rights in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs decision.
43 students participated and showcased a variation of backgrounds. Students from Maternal and Child Health, Health Policy, Epidemiology, Global Health, Physician Assistant program, Communications and Marketing, the Law School, and the Health Services and Management program were represented. Dr. Amita Vyas and Dr. Wanda Nicholson gave opening remarks.
Students were assigned to one of seven states upon arrival: Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, or Washington. Students researched their assigned state and the existing information on Medicaid expansion, abortion access and legality, maternal and infant mortality reports, state maternal wellness report cards, rural health overviews, contraceptive access information, and early childhood care overviews.
Students were then asked to identify and build arguments for 3-4 policy recommendations specific to their assigned state that would benefit (i.e. lead to better health outcomes for) the person they were assigned in their vignette. Throughout the recommendation making process, students were instructed to center health equity (both in access and outcome), racial, class, and gender justice, and the sustainability of proposed solutions in their policy proposal.
