Designing Interprofessional Pathway Programs to Foster Authentic Patient Partnerships and Health System Navigation

Creating meaningful interprofessional educational experiences with authentic patients is challenging for many reasons (curricular schedules, timing, level of learners, clinical placements, preceptor availability, etc).Rationale: To address this problem, we developed two Pathway Programs—Patient-Student Partnership (PSP) and Clinical Navigation (CN)—where interprofessional learners collaborate with peers and professionals to build therapeutic relationships, address health and wellness goals, tackle social determinants of health, and identify quality improvement opportunities. PSP activities focus on health and wellness, while CN centers on health systems science. These programs integrate patient/community needs and emphasize teamwork.Impact: To date, 53 students and 16 patients have participated. During the inaugural year, patients reported high agreement (≥4.25/5.0 Likert) on items related to students’ support in achieving health and wellness goals. Both students and patients provided positive written reflections, highlighting meaningful relationships. High patient satisfaction led to recruitment of their friends into the year 2 patient cohort; so many patients wanted to participate that our capacity to include them all was exceeded!Relationship to the conference theme: These Pathway Programs offer an innovative approach to effectively enhance interprofessional education and foster strong, meaningful connections between students and patients. Students value the opportunity to learn about other healthcare roles and build deep relationships with patients, while patients appreciate the variety, depth, and relational benefits of their interactions with students.