Hawaii Interprofessional Education Collaborative begins 3rd year at Dole Middle School

The Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing Hawaii Interprofessional Education and Collaborative (HIPEC) Alliance Program is beginning its third year at Sanford B. Dole Middle School, in partnership with the Hawaii Keiki: Healthy and Ready to Learn Program. The HIPEC Alliance Program at Dole Middle School is funded by several private foundations and the Hawaii State Center for Nursing’s Hawaii Action Coalition.

In the 2018-19 academic year, the HIPEC team conducted 200 clinical encounters, 24 mental health consults, 90 pharmacy consults, 801 vision screenings, and 117 growth exams. A total of 132 dental screenings were conducted which identified 10 students needing an urgent referral for services. The team also created health-related videos that were used for the school’s morning announcements, wrote about health topics in the school newsletter, conducted classroom presentations, participated in the school career fair and the Stop Flu at School event, and created a faculty and staff wellness program.

This interprofessional team is led by Melissa Owens, MSN, APRN-Rx, FNP-BC, NCSN, Hawaii Keiki Family Nurse Practitioner and includes nurse practitioner students, fourth-year clinical pharmacy students, child/adolescent psychiatry fellows, expanded-function dental hygiene students, and faculty from each of the partnering schools from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and UH Hilo. Faculty members that are part of the HIPEC Alliance team are Dr. Chad Kawakami, PharmD, UH Hilo Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy; Dr. Reid Hamamoto, Child-Adolescent Psychiatrist, UH Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine; and Natasha Galarza, RDH, UH Manoa Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing.

For more information about the Hawaii Interprofessional Education and Collaborative (HIPEC) Alliance Program contact Deborah Mattheus, PhD, APRN-Rx, CPNP, associate professor at (808) 956-8426 or mattheus@hawaii.edu.