Susan M. Meyer, Associate Dean for Education and Professor, and Haley M. Fribance, (Class of 2021), were members of an inter-professional team from the University of Pittsburgh that was selected as having the “most promising solution” in the Clinical Learning Environment Innovation Challenge (CLE Challenge) at the Nexus Summit in August 2019. Other team members included Barbara Barnes (Associate Vice Chancellor for Industry Relations and Continuing Education, Health Sciences; Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education, School of Medicine), Victoria Hornyak (Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences), and Mario Browne (Director of Health Sciences Diversity).
The CLE Challenge consisted of a 1-hour orientation to design thinking, a 3-hour design workshop, and a 1-hour judging event. Hosted by the National Center for Inter-professional Practice and Education, the National Collaborative for Improving the Clinical Learning Environment, and SmithGroup, the event was focused on the creation of learning and care environments that foster a patient-centered, team-based approach to care. Central to the team’s solution was the patient and family-centered care model and a shift from learner-clinician diads to learner-patient diads across a given patient’s continuum of care. Read the full-length feature article.