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Interprofessional Program at Dole Middle School Recognized Nationally as an Exemplar Project

The NAWSON Hawaii Interprofessional Education and Collaborative (HIPEC) Alliance program was launched at Dole Middle School to provide interprofessional care to children to allow students to remain in school and engaged in learning in August 2017. During the first year, the team provided services to more than 250 students including urgent care, behavioral health and clinical pharmacy consultations.

HIPEC Team at Dole Middle School

The first year of the pilot program culminated in a site visit by the National Center for Accelerating Interprofessional Practice and Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funders, as well as representatives from the Hawaii State Center for Nursing Action Coalition, Hawaii State Department of Education, Hawaii Keiki, Hawaii Pacific Health, UH Foundation, Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, and the John A. Burns School of Medicine. At the end of the two-day site visit, the HIPEC Alliance was recognized for having truly accelerated the IPC practice model into community-based care in Hawaii. The team notified the project they were chosen as one of six exemplary national projects. The program will be expanded to more Hawaii Keiki Program school based health centers, and has sparked interest in implementing similar approaches to providing care in a variety of ambulatory care settings.

This past August marked the start of the second year for the HIPEC Alliance practice and the expansion of the practice team to include dental hygiene students and faculty. Dental hygiene students and faculty are providing oral health screenings, dental education, and referrals to dentists for preventative and restorative care. UHM Nursing undergraduate community health nursing students have been integrated in the IPC practice model to follow-up with medical referrals that were not completed. Students will provide information to the HIPEC Alliance clinicians about barriers that families encountered with accessing referred services so that the team can improve the uptake of referrals.

Interprofessional collaboration team

The NAWSON founding Project Director is Maureen Shannon, PhD, CNM, FNP, professor of nursing with Natasha Fong, RDH, dental hygiene instructor and Melissa Owens, MSN, APRN-Rx, NP-C, NCSN (Hawaii Keiki nurse practitioner at Dole Middle School); Chad Kamakami, PharmD (Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy); and Reid Hamamoto, MD (John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry.

This project received funding from the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education, which is supported by a Health Resources and Services Administration Cooperative Agreement Award No. UE5HP25067. The National Center is also funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the University of Minnesota. Matching funds were provided by the Hawaii State Center for Nursing’s Hawaii Action Coalition.

For more information about the HIPEC Alliance, contact Julie Kathman, DNP, RN, CNS-BC, CPN at jkathman@hawaii.edu.

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