Best practices in interprofessional education and training in surgery: experiences from American College of Surgeons-Accredited Education Institutes.

Background: Interprofessional education (IPE) in health care describes a process for training that places health care learners from different professional disciplines into an environment or situation in which shared or linked educational goals are pursued. IPE represents a new way of thinking about education as a value proposition directed at high-quality interprofessional patient care and as such is an innovative strategy endorsed in statements by the Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organization. The requirements of the American College of Surgeons-accredited Education Institutes (ACS-AEIs) for Comprehensive (Level I) accreditation state that education and training activities at the accredited institutes (simulation centers) must be multidisciplinary in nature.

Research training and biomedical education.

In an effort to increase the number of well trained minority healthcare professionals and basic science researchers, Jackson State University, (JSU, a historically black institution) in partnership with Hinds Community College (HCC, a 2-year college) and consultant biomedical researchers/healthcare professionals at the University of Mississippi Medical Center established a Bridges to the Baccalaureate Degree Program (BBDP). The purpose of the BBDP was to enhance HCC students transfer rates to 4 year institutions and to motivate trainees to seek Baccalaureate and advanced degrees in the biomedical and health sciences areas. The program utilized faculty and administrators at each institution in the planning and implementation of all programmatic aspects, including student selection, advisement procedures and program activities.

The combined effects of pyridostigmine and chronic stress on brain cortical and blood acetylcholinesterase, corticosterone, prolactin and alternation performance in rats.

Thousands of soldiers who served in the Gulf War have symptoms that have been collectively termed Gulf War Illness (GWI). It has been suggested that a combination of operational stress and pyridostigmine, a drug given as a pretreatment to protect soldiers against the effects of exposure to nerve agents, might have had unexpected adverse health effects causing these symptoms. Our laboratory has previously modeled operational stress in rats using a paradigm of around-the-clock intermittent signalled footshock.