On March 28, the third annual Interprofessional Education Summit took place in the Swartz Center for Spiritual Life. The event was attended by more than 700 health care individuals from 12 different colleges and universities in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Williamsport.

The goal of the summit was to have different areas within the health care field all working together to learn from, about, and with each other.

“When people work together, it’s been proven that patients’ lives are saved,” said Karen Arscott, clinical associate professor at Marywood.

The evening began with a PowerPoint presentation about interprofessional education by Arscott. A videotaped case was then shown. The students, who were made up of different disciplines, were then guided into small groups of about 8-10 with 1-2 facilitators per group. Together the groups discussed how they would take care of the patient in the case study. After the discussion the groups would return to talk about what they learned and discovered.

“This is a good way to broaden my horizons,” said Kim Ykema, social work student at Marywood University.

“[The Summit] simulates real life situations of how we can work together,” said Lisa Spinelli, occupational therapy student at The University of Scranton.

Arscott explained that by getting all of the different disciplines to work together they have a chance to learn about real life situations.

“We are all on an equal playing field,” she said.

She went on to explain that she did not get a chance to see what other people did where she worked until she was out in the field, which makes this a unique opportunity that was “one of a kind in the country.