Jan. 9, 2026
Preparing Students for Collaborative Careers
Pitt Health Sciences is expanding its interprofessional education program to give health sciences and social work students more opportunities to learn teamwork and communication skills together.
TOPICS: Education | Interprofessional
“We are working in an organized and strategic way to yield particular outcomes for all those learners to understand the system in which clinical care is best delivered.”
The program is building on the existing annual interprofessional forum that Pitt has held each fall for more than a decade and will also offer small group sessions focused on patient-centered teamwork. Sessions offered in Spring 2026 on sustainability and misinformation were in such high demand that many students were sent to a waitlist.
“We are so excited to offer new opportunities for students of the health sciences to learn with, from and about each other, to form lasting relationships, and to have fun in the process.”
In spring 2026, the program will host a peer-to-peer skills fair in which advanced students teach other students skills like suturing, depression screening and naloxone and AED administration.
“The goal is to train all of our students to think in an interprofessional way about patient care,” said Victoria Hornyak, associate professor of physical therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and codirector of the Office of Interprofessional Education. “We are so excited to offer new opportunities for students of the health sciences to learn with, from and about each other, to form lasting relationships, and to have fun in the process.”
In these settings, says Wallach, “they will build early professional relationships and friendships across schools.
“This is phase one. There’s more to come.”