Advancing Wellness Across an Academic Healthcare Curriculum: An Interprofessional Educational Approach

Recognizing and understanding the nuances of mental health and how issues can present at various levels of healthcare for both patients and the interprofessional (IP) healthcare team can be crucial for the success and well-being of team members, as well as for achieving positive patient outcomes. Learners from various allied healthcare disciplines participated in a Case-Based Learning-Sequential Disclosure Activity (CBL-SDA) to address navigating appropriate approaches to fostering wellness in the clinical encounter and within healthcare teams from a multidisciplinary perspective. The CBL-SDA was delivered to a cohort of allied health students (N = 90) using a 4-step process during an interprofessional education (IPE) event of (i) Orientation, (ii) Sequential Disclosure, (iii) IPE Forum, (iv) Wrap-up. Pre- and post-activity surveys were voluntarily collected to gauge participants’ perceptions of the content and delivery method, with a response rate of 90% (N = 81). Overall, participants reported gaining confidence in their understanding of wellness, in identifying and providing support for a person struggling with wellness, in having tools to promote wellness, and also rated their own wellness higher, following the one-hour training session. It can be concluded that IPE activities highlighting wellness and mental health are beneficial and necessary in allied health care training.