SMART Solutions for a Shared Planet: A One Health Interprofessional Learning Workshop

One Health is a collaborative, transdisciplinary approach to achieving optimal health outcomes that recognizes the interconnectedness of humans, animals, plants, and the environment. One Health initiatives expand considerations for interprofessional teams beyond traditional health system professions to include practice sites such as veterinarians, climatologists, and environmental biologists. The One Health approach is important to understanding how global health is affected by issues like zoonotic diseases and climate-related health threats. These animal and environmental factors have direct impact on Quadruple Aim targets. To inform students of One Health concepts and approaches, we developed a case-based, interprofessional workshop that incorporates a ‘Call for Proposal” for a One Health topic with quality improvement (QI) methodology. This workshop advances interprofessional education and care through a practice-education model bridging academic health professions learning with population health targets. Workshops to date have been designed and delivered by Office of IPE faculty facilitators and the Department of Health State Public Health Veterinarian.

Following a brief lecture that reviews epidemiology, definitions, and impact data (state-specific data is provided to enhance relevance) and introduces the ‘Call for Proposal’, interprofessional teams work to design a QI project to address the need. The project idea is presented in SMART goal format using a structured worksheet. Teams report their project idea and receive feedback from other IP teams and faculty facilitators. The QI project development is repeated for a second round with a modified target goal, and the report and feedback process repeated. The workshop agenda includes: orientation and lecture (30 min), SMART Goal #1 development (30 min), team presentations/feedback (30 min), SMART Goal #2 development (25 min), team presentations/feedback (20 min), takeaways (15 min).

The workshop has been delivered twice with Rabies and H5N1 Avian Influenza areas of focus. Students (n=136) from medicine (60), pharmacy (13), nursing (20), public health (6), health professions (36), and graduate school (1) have participated. Students agreed the workshop was a valuable learning experience (4 out of 5). Evaluation metrics for interprofessional skills and workshop format and delivery (5-pt Likert scale, open response questions) will be presented, and example project proposals will be shared.

This workshop provides a replicable framework for integrating One Health targets, interprofessional teamwork and QI methods. Linking real-world challenges and promoting systems-level approaches engages thinking beyond the classroom to prepare students to apply collaborative practice strategies for community and public health improvements.