Who We Are
Recognized as a national IPE leader, UNE is the only institution in New England that is part of the National Center for Interprofessional Education and Practice’s prestigious Innovation Network.
Our mission is to prepare students to work collaboratively, across disciplines, to achieve more successful outcomes as members of clinical and community teams.
Our work touches every health professions program at UNE and many of the arts, sciences, research, and humanities programs. We foster an inclusive environment where students, faculty, and community partners learn together to advance effective health practices and improve the quality of life for all people.
What is Interprofessional Education?
Interprofessional education takes place when students from two or more disciplines learn with, from, and about each other to better understand different professions’ roles and expertise, improve communication, enhance teamwork, and advance future workforce skills.
IPE began with health professions, with students from different programs being taught to work together as part of larger, interdisciplinary healthcare teams. This approach has proven to produce successful patient outcomes, and the model is now expanding so it can be applied to broader situations.
Collaborative practice is the professional application of IPE, with people from different backgrounds and with different areas of expertise working together to deliver a higher quality of service and care to achieve common goals.
Teamwork allows you to achieve more together than any one person could achieve alone.
Gregory Blackman '20
Why UNE
[UNE’s Physician Assistant program is] on this uphill progression of being built and built even though it's been around for a long time. It's had really great numbers. The board pass rate is above the national average, which speaks to the reliability of the program and the quality of education. That’s important to me.
UNE is unique in many inspiring ways. The Portland campus is a great place. The idea that you are here with other graduate students but also other health professionals on a campus of your own has a special way of fostering interprofessional work and development. There's a heavy reliability. Everyone works very hard. As a student, you have daily opportunities for interactions with other professions, which I love a lot. It's being able to go to those other professions and ask them for their opinion to get that angle of expertise. It gives you a broader view on things and a better connection.
Interprofessional Education
Other students in my program worked in the ER, or were paramedics, military medics, or respiratory therapists. I was an athletic trainer in the ER. All of these people come together here in the PA program, bringing along their various different backgrounds of medicine. Then we all have the opportunity to combine our knowledge and help each other. I have my areas of strength, but there are a lot of other areas that I have just barely even learned about. This collaborative feel fosters our classes.
It’s unique to have all these different views and be able to learn from your classmates while also learning from the faculty. It's almost like it's interprofessional within your profession, which is very cool.
The idea that you are here with other graduate students but also other health professionals on a campus of your own has a special way of fostering interprofessional work and development.
IPE Impact Report
In addition to making people more effective health care providers, IPE helps people get hired, maximize leadership opportunities, avert professional burnout, develop resilience, and more.
These are among the findings from a recent survey of alumni, asking them to gauge the impact their interprofessional education is having on their working lives.
Why Interprofessional Education Matters
Student Opportunities
CAIEP engages UNE undergraduate and graduate students in a wide range of cross-disciplinary experiential activities, immersive service-learning opportunities, team-based community initiatives, and collaborative research projects.
Students can earn an IPE Honors Distinction by documenting participation in CAIEP activities in an e-portfolio and producing a meaningful interprofessional project.
If you’d like to learn more about CAIEP opportunities, email Michelle Cote at mcote8@une.edu.
Faculty and Professional Staff Opportunities
Faculty and professional staff are always welcome and encouraged to become members of CAIEP’s lively community as facilitators, advisors, and researchers to advance knowledge of IPE’s efficacy.
To learn more about employee opportunities email Kris Hall at chall4@une.edu.
Our Collaborators
CAIEP builds relationships with faculty, university centers, programs, community partners, and national organizations. These partnerships contribute to state-of-the-art programming, meaningful co-curricular and service-learning opportunities for students while at the university, and lifelong connections post-graduation.
If you would like to partner with our center, email Shelley Cohen Konrad at scohenkonrad@une.edu.