Collaboration Insights

Collaboration Insights: A Health Professions Blog for Effective Collaboration is a blog created for students, faculty, and alumni by interprofessional student interns. It is a hub for information on interprofessional education and collaboration: related skill-building, research, professional spotlights, and podcasts.


Two cartoon Black masculine-presenting characters smiling and talking to each other with a desk between them. The person behind the desk appears to be a healthcare provider, and the person in front of the desk appears to be a patient.

Engaging Patients as Team Members

As future health professionals, we can play a role in increasing our patients’ engagement as members of their care team. 


5 hands, each of a different color, overlapping each other as though in a team huddle

Interprofessional Compassion to Promote Psychological Safety within Healthcare

In the face of ever-intensifying complexity of patient care and demands of an interprofessional health infrastructure, a psychologically safe workforce is exactly what we need to work towards.


Interprofessional collaborative leadership graphic - several cartoon people working together in front of a wall of posters

Interprofessional Collaborative Leadership

Collaborative Leadership: Working together to improve health outcomes by recognizing all of us – leaders, providers, health professionals, patients, families, and community – as learners and leaders.


Colorful graphic outlining a person with long hair speaking into a megaphone. Question marks and word bubbles are coming out of the megaphone.

Mental Health Awareness Month: The Importance of Being a Self-Advocate

Self-Advocacy: Prioritizing your mental health needs, protecting your boundaries and wellbeing, and establishing your safety and self-respect. 


Headshot of Robert Pokorney, who has short, dark, curly hair and is looking at the camera and smiling

The Importance of Curiosity

"When nurses and other healthcare professionals are actively curious, we discover things we would never have learned."


Arazu Kian, who has dark shoulder-length hair, is wearing a white blouse, and is looking at the camera and smiling

Engaging Interprofessionally Beyond Your Health Professions Program

Arazu Kian is a third-year Women's Health and Gender-Related Doctor of Nursing Practice (WHGRNP) student. As a second-year intern, she shares her experience with the Interprofessional Internship Program.


Illustration of a girl wih a frown holding a mask with a smile

The Power of Vulnerability

Vulnerability: According to the theoretical framework of the vulnerability theory, vulnerability is defined as the characteristic that positions us in relation to each other as human beings and suggests a relationship of responsibility between the state, their institutions, and the individual.


Buried person holding a help sign

Asking for Help as a Healthcare Professional

Asking for help is a challenge individuals face in their daily lives. The discomfort that comes with admitting we are unable to complete a task or even to just say the words “I don’t know”. However, when we need help but avoid asking for it, we limit our potential and success. Asking for help is a necessary skill to learn and grow.


A graphic representing collaboration to effect individual wellbeing

Interprofessional Collaboration’s Effect on an Individual's Wellbeing

Wellbeing and stress are topics frequently discussed regarding health care workers, specifically regarding its effect on patient care. Rob Cooke discusses the implications it can have on an individual's productivity and health care costs: reduced productivity and increased health care costs.


Implicit Bias

Implicit Bias

Implicit bias is a discussion that has been frequently discussed in conversations regarding equity and diversity. CEO of Goalkeeper, Valerie Alexander, describes implicit bias as an innate response to an unexpected situation (fight or flight). When a situation arises that is unfamiliar it triggers a stress reaction. This is an uncomfortable feeling, so people tend to surround themselves with others that fit their “norm”.