The Rural Interprofessional Health Initiative: Engaging Partners Through Interprofessional Education and Practice

The Rural Interprofessional Health Initiative (RIPHI) takes a multifaceted approach to maximize the Quadruple Aim through interprofessional quality improvement work, responding to the increasing rural workforce needs in North Carolina, and developing interprofessional collaboration opportunities by creating a unique experience where healthcare professionals and students work as a team to implement population health interventions to improve care, and expose students to the unique needs of rural North Carolina.

The RIPHI is comprised of three components:
1) training modules focused on interprofessional population health management for students,
2) healthcare professional support through clinical site development followed by
3) a clinical immersion experience where students and healthcare professionals work together using quality improvement principles to address population-based clinical problems in rural communities.

The didactic content utilizes a blended learning format with 8 online modules (Overview of population health, Quality Metrics, Epidemiology, Needs Assessment, Patient and Community Engagement, Health Disparities, Care Coordination, and Costs and Risk modeling) and 7 face-to-face sessions focused on team building, interprofessional collaboration and communication, and application of content from the modules. Following the didactic content, students then enroll in a clinical immersion course offered over two semesters (January-July), which engages them in implementing and evaluating a high-impact improvement project (HIP) in selected rural practices.

Since August 2015, RIPHI has trained 145 interprofessional students in the health professions and partnered with 9 clinical practice sites. Examples of HIP projects focused on exploring models for a low risk birthing center in a rural hospital, reducing ED utilization by addressing social determinants, hotspotting in home health, and development of an interprofessional online depression management tool.

This lightning talk will provide an overview of the course, immersion experience, and partnerships with the communities, as well as strategies for success and next steps. This work is funded by a grant by the Kenan Trust.