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Interprofessional Education Project (IPE) Program

IPE Program Highlights

  • Practicum experiences with a hands-on, team-based learning approach.
  • Cohort-based training for interdisciplinary groups of students in clinical practicum settings with defined site-specific HIV IPE curricula.
  • Hands-on HIV clinical learning opportunities through long-term preceptorships and shorter-term clinical shadowing opportunities at the CU Infectious Diseases Group Practice, which includes integrated behavioral health and pharmacy services.
  • HIV care and prevention content integrated into the curricula of participating health professional training programs.
  • Training tailored to support the Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice, 2016 and the interprofessional education principles of the World Health Organization.
Participating Schools and Programs at CU include:

  • CU School of Medicine
  • CU College of Nursing
  • CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy
  • CU Clinical Health Psychology Program
The IPE Program provides hands on clinical experience at:

  • University Health Infectious Disease Group Practice (a Ryan White Part B Clinic)
  • A.F. Williams Family Medicine Center
  • DAWN Clinic (a student-run free clinic located in Aurora, CO)

The goal of the MWAETC IPE program is to build HIV workforce capacity by increasing the numbers of new graduates from Schools of Nursing, Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Behavioral Health Programs with the skills to contribute to interdisciplinary care teams and the desire to enter the HIV care workforce. Ultimately, an expanded, prepared workforce will lead to expanded access to HIV care and improved outcomes along the HIV care continuum.

The MWAETC’s IPE Project is based at the University of Colorado College of Nursing (CU Nursing) and provides training and curriculum support to faculty of health professions schools and behavioral health graduate programs.

These activities:

  • help faculty teach students to provide high quality HIV testing, care, and prevention, and
  • incorporate interprofessional team care competencies into their teaching.

The MWAETC also facilitates interprofessional practicum experiences with a hands-on, team-based learning approach.

The IPE program affects change for students, faculty, and health professional programs through the use of best practices for training, student enrichment, and faculty mentoring.

IPE Project trainers consult with faculty about teaching needs and gaps, and support curriculum development to address identified needs. They use best practices, including the National HIV Curriculum.

Examples of IPE curricula include

  • HIV diagnosis, care, and treatment
  • Interprofessional team care
  • HIV Care Continuum metrics
  • Care for at-risk populations
  • Quality improvement methods

Faculty are mentored on aspects of HIV care relevant to their work, such as prevention, chronic care, substance use, rurality, or vulnerable groups.

IPE Training Topics

The IPE/HIV program routinely trains faculty and preceptors who mentor students on the following topics:

  • HIV overview (prevalence, epidemiology)
  • Primary care for HIV patients
  • Risk factors for HIV transmission
  • Aging with HIV
  • Drug and alcohol use and HIV (includes SBIRT for primary care)
  • Mental health issues and HIV (e.g., anxiety, depression, trauma/post-traumatic stress)
  • Risk Assessment/Risk Reduction Counseling
  • HIV testing and STD testing
  • STDs including HIV
  • Rural care, including resources for rural providers
  • Difficult conversations (includes giving HIV test results)
  • Diagnosis of HIV infection (physical examination findings, basic HIV labs)
  • Medical Management of HIV infection (antiretroviral therapy)
  • Opportunistic infections in HIV (brief overview, including hepatitis C)
  • Behavioral and biomedical prevention of HIV transmission
  • Behavioral and biomedical prevention of HIV transmission
  • Cultural sensitivity (Native American patients, Latino/Latina patients, LGBT patients)
  • Chronic disease management (psychosocial issues, aging, comorbidities)
  • HIV pharmacology
  • Treatment adherence/retention in care
  • Motivational interviewing
  • Interprofessional teams and interprofessional communication
  • Integrated medical-behavioral care
  • Quality improvement in primary care (EBP, medial homes, practice transformation)
  • Medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders (MAT/MOUD)
  • Syndemics: HIV clusters, opioids, mental health, etc.
  • Non-pharmacologic pain management
  • Syringe access programs
  • Transgender health care