Enlighten Me

- Welcome to Enlighten Me, where Texas State experts help shed light on how the world really works. I'm your host, Rodney Crouther, and today we're talking to Dr. Shannon Herrin about the Texas State Physical Therapy Department and training the future caregivers of tomorrow. Thank you for joining us. What is your special area of research?

- Probably my primary line of research is interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

- Okay, could you explain what that means exactly? What is, please repeat?

- Yes, interprofessional education and collaborative practice. So, interprofessional education simply is just students from two or more health professions programs learning about, from, and with each other. Over time, we've understood that a lot of our healthcare professionals work together, but they're still in their silos. And so by working more collaboratively, we're hopeful that's going to improve health outcomes, reduce cost, there's several other aims that we have with that. And so in order to have our healthcare professionals work more closely and collaboratively, they need to start in the classroom and that's what interprofessional education's all about.

- Okay, I don't think I'd considered that before, but, you know, people see different specialists for, when they're treating a particular condition, they're seeing their primary and a specialist, or they've had surgery and then going to physical therapy. And I think as a layman, we always assume that all medical professionals know everything.

- We really have very little coursework where we're learning about what other professionals do. And so we need to bridge that gap. And we usually do that through specific activities or experiences. And so I'm passionate about those experiences and so I decided when I'm, you know, having those opportunities in the classroom, why not also tie my research to that as well?

- And let's step back a little bit and hear a bit about your story. How did you become interested in physical therapy as a career?

- Many, many moons ago, when I was younger, I always took care of animals that I found or friends having an injury. And so I knew that I wanted to do something in healthcare and I considered lots of different options. And then a family friend was a physical therapist and she was telling me really what she liked about the field. She got to work one-on-one with patients for an extended period of time. And then what's a little different than some areas of healthcare is that it's not just about treating a patient that has an injury or an illness, and then you're done. It's about working with them closely to really build that relationship and be able to help them develop tools and skills to where they're able to move more efficiently. That could be maybe, in the movies, they always show physical therapists helping someone learn to walk again. But it's more than that. It's helping a runner get back to running, or someone that is having limitations at their job because of back pain be able to return to work, or helping children that have a developmental disability be able to move past that or gain greater function within that to be able to participate in the classroom or recreational activity. And so it encompasses so much, and that really drew me because there wasn't anything that I didn't like about it. And then it offers all the flexibility that a lot of the health professions don't offer. You can work part-time. You can pick up a patient here or there depending in the setting you're in.

- Sure.

- And so all of that really drew me in to being more interested. And we do require all of our students, and back in the day I had to as well, do volunteer hours. And so that's where you really learn about what the field is about. And that cemented, once I was involved with actual patient care, realizing that's what I wanted to do.

- Wow, the way you describe that is, so, for a physical therapist, you really need to understand how a person is using their entire body and their day-to-day life to understand what you need to do to treat them.

- You just hit the nail on the head. We are a movement specialist. It's not just about someone's knee pain, what's causing that? Certainly there's probably something going on in the knee, but is it their foot? Is it the way they're walking? Is it the way they're moving? Are their hips in alignment? And so there's so much to it. So, the field really has evolved over time and we really consider ourselves movement specialists. And that's hopefully why patients are coming to us and clients as well because as we move away from just treating dysfunction, we wanna help prevent it as well.

- What drew you specifically to the interprofessional education?

- Even when I was treating clinically, and I treated in the clinic for 12 years, even though I respected my colleagues in other areas, I really didn't know exactly what they did. And it was hard to communicate with them. I mean, it certainly was back in the day where there was a fax machine versus a computer, until we eventually got the computer. And I think that I noticed even then that we knew each other. I sent paperwork to the doctor, I referred people to occupational therapy, but I really didn't engage them. And then having the opportunity to be in the classroom and see those same silos exist, I thought, this is it. This is where I can make the difference in the classroom so hopefully those students go out and practice and understand that they can still have that same respect and collaboration with those same type of healthcare professionals in the clinic that they did in the classroom.

- What are some of the examples you use in the classroom to help students, you know, kind of bridge that gap and expand their view of what their life as a physical therapist is gonna be like?

- So, I have the privilege of teaching a lot of the first-year classes. I tell them they're gonna get sick of me because I'm with them their whole first year. And so even very early on now in the program, they get together with students in other health professions programs on the Round Rock Campus, which is great, because most of our programs are all there and makes it easier to get together to do interprofessional education activities. And so, for example, in one of the early classes, we get together with the radiation therapy students and the respiratory care students and we each have the opportunity to showcase what we do. So, the physical therapy students help demonstrate how do you move a patient in the bed. And so for radiation therapists, they have to help their patients get on and off of a table. Because, something that I didn't know that I learned through interprofessional education, is that radiation therapists do know how to take X-rays, but that's not what they do. They treat individuals that have cancer. And so understanding that and how we can help them assist a patient, not just off the table, but maybe walk over to their wheelchair, was really important. And they go out to clinic very early on, once they're in the radiation therapy program. With respiratory care, they showed our students how to use oxygen. Is there a traditional tank or is there, there's like a little portable tank that patients can use as well. And then the radiation therapy students showcased what they do. Again, teaching our students that it's not just about x-rays. So, very early on, the students are starting to learn the roles and responsibilities of the other professions. They get to know them on a more friendly basis. It's funny because they all get together, when you have an interprofessional education activity, when you get the students together, they're all quiet, they don't know each other. And by the end, seeing them interact, laugh together, appreciate, at the end we always debrief and they share their appreciation for what the other profession knows and what they can do. And to me, that's what it's all about.

- Is it an advantage, I mean, just with the culture that we've built at our Round Rock Campus, to have those other clinical practices there just in the building and next door to our physical therapy programs? So, I know all of our programs have clinical time off-campus, our students do. But having them right next door where it's easy to get them together, is that just an advantage as a university if someone's interested in physical therapy to come here?

- I do. It's a huge advantage to have the majority of the programs on the same campus, but close by, just like you said. All the chairs know each other, the faculty know each other. They can develop closer relationships through these interprofessional opportunities. And I am the chair of the Interprofessional Education Committee for the college. And so each year I get to host a session at what we call our fall gathering, which is some training for the faculty, and where we have awards. And so it's an opportunity for the faculty to get to know each other better and learn about best practices in IPE. And having the opportunity for the students, like you said, to be on the same campus in shared spaces makes it so much easier. Now, there's always challenges.

- Of course.

- These are lockstep programs where students are in a very specific, I always say it's like you're going back to K-5 where you're in the same classes with the same people on the same schedule. And so sometimes that can be a challenge. But I think the faculty are really committed for those that are interested in interprofessional education to find the time to make it work. And we've done that. So it's pretty exciting, and it's really fun to work with those individuals on a consistent basis.

- Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing with us why it's important to have interprofessional education in healthcare.

- I appreciate it.

- Thank you for joining us for Enlighten Me and follow Texas State Podcast Network for more.