Design and impact of an orientation for an interprofessional education program

Students who participate in the Vanderbilt Program for Interprofessional Learning are required to attend Immersion, our program of orientation for teams of interprofessional students. Medical, advanced practice nursing, pharmacy, and social work students coming from different institutions are required to complete the 4 day “Immersion” before beginning in their respective academic programs, as a way to decrease the development of professional bias. Many of the students are also new to the Nashville area, and the Immersion program introduces the students to the community and the populations they will be serving in professional school and beyond. Immersion includes a range of activities, including community tours, poverty simulations, creation of life maps, personality identification, team building, patient storytelling, and introduction to professional life. Each day has a specific theme: Self, Community, Professions and the Patient. Student evaluations for Immersion are overwhelmingly positive. The focus of this paper is to describe the curricular design of the Immersion week, report student feedback, and discuss lessons learned that might provide guidance for other educational programs.