VIPE Prepares Yale PA Online Students for a Successful Career in Health Care

Tyler Kameh, Class of 2022 . Anne Tempel, Class of 2022. Mary Showstark, Yale PA Online Faculty Member

Yale School of Medicine’s Physician Assistant (PA) Online Program began offering Virtual Interprofessional Education (VIPE) events in 2018 to provide students a collaborative, interdisciplinary experience to enhance their curriculum. Over 1,200 students from multiple health care disciplines and universities have participated in a VIPE event since its inception. It is now offered three times per year: spring, summer, and fall. In addition, a global extension of VIPE called Afri-VIPE has been added to the series.

VIPE brings together students and faculty to evaluate and present hypothetical patient case studies as a team of health care professionals in their respective fields. VIPE gives students an opportunity to experience collaboration and interaction between peers from different specialties, which will be critical for success in their careers. 

“It’s our job as educators to ensure that students recognize that they need to communicate with other members of the team, and that they’re not working in a silo,” said Yale PA Online faculty member and Director of Virtual Interprofessional Education, Mary Showstark, MPAS, PA-C, who is VIPE’s founder.  

From the beginning, VIPE has connected Yale PA Online students with students across multiple disciplines. Participating students include nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers, speech-language pathologists, dentists, and public health professionals from top-tier universities.

“Students see that there’s an overlap in the profession, that there is a task-sharing and task-shifting that occurs,” said Showstark. “And that means that we’re working together as a cohesive team.”

Students are presented a patient case and supporting resources prior to a VIPE session. Examples of cases include a patient who has suffered from a stroke and, more recently, a patient who contracted COVID-19 with multiple underlying health issues. After students receive their case briefs, they come together in a two-hour, virtual live event where they are divided into interdisciplinary teams to discuss the case and develop a recommended path for treatment. Each team has a faculty mentor who helps guide the discussion. At the end of the session, teams present their recommendations to the group.

Showstark stated that, after every session, she receives messages from students about how much they appreciated the interprofessional learning, adding “I’ve had students tell me that this is one of the best experiences they’ve had in PA school.” 

“It’s a great way to learn how to work across the table with professionals in other disciplines,” said current Yale PA Online student, Tyler Kameh. “The PA role requires you to put on different hats—which makes VIPE incredibly applicable to the real world.” 

Kameh explains that VIPE provides a real-life tangible representation of the Yale PA Online Program’s grounding in interdisciplinary education. “The most elucidating part for me was seeing how other health professionals approach each case,” he shared. “In my third clinical rotation, I worked with two social workers who were great. Partly thanks to VIPE, I already had a strong understanding of their roles—which got our working relationship off the ground a lot quicker. Having a social worker right there in front of you and being able to ask questions is an invaluable opportunity.” 

In practice, treatment of a single patient requires collaboration across multiple disciplines. “When I was working as a lab technician, there was a lot of miscommunication between health care professionals,” said Anne Tempel, a current Yale PA Online student. “Working well as a group requires an understanding of the unique perspectives that other team members are bringing to the table—which also makes it easier to coordinate and deliver the best possible patient care.”

Kameh also has witnessed a lack of effective communication in the medical industry. “There is a real need for this in health care right now,” he shared. “Valuing interdisciplinary work and giving students a better understanding of the entire health care system is incredibly important. Yale is a pioneer in this field, and VIPE is just another example of them leading the way.” 

For Tempel, VIPE is a great example of the Yale PA Online Program’s ability to provide an enriching academic experience for students. “You’re not just listening to lectures all day; you’re working in a group.” Tempel explained. “This experience-based learning style is extremely exciting to me. In that sense, VIPE is really just an extension of the program—with more complicated, real-world scenarios.” 

The Addition of Afri-VIPE

Showstark’s expertise in trauma surgery, emergency medicine, and disaster preparedness has provided her with opportunities to deliver life-saving medical attention in rural and austere environments around the world, including Nicaragua, Haiti, Nepal, and the Philippines. In addition to her faculty role at Yale, Showstark serves as a global ambassador to the American Academy of PAs and consults with the World Health Organization’s Global Framework for Universal Healthcare. 

Showstark wanted to create an opportunity for students to gain a global view in addition to a multidisciplinary experience, so in 2020, Yale PA Online pioneered Afri-VIPE, a global counterpart to VIPE.

Afri-VIPE connected practitioners from around the world with 399 participants hailing from 27 universities, 14 countries, and 21 professions. Afri-VIPE participants collaborated on a case involving a female patient with diabetes who lived in a shack, had no running water, and was recovering from a dog bite.

“What was so powerful about that case is that in bringing 14 different countries together, people who had no experience with certain elements of life in South Africa were able to see a different picture,” said Showstark. 

Tempel attended the Afri-VIPE session and stated, “this scenario gave me a chance to see what patient care is like in other parts of the world without leaving home.” 

VIPE has received recognition for its role in preparing students for a successful career in interdisciplinary medicine including: 

Citation for this content: Yale School of Medicine Physician Assistant Online Program.