Riverside, CA – Riverside City College will host its third Interprofessional Education Event on Friday, September 23, at 1 pm.

The event brings together medical students from UC Riverside School of Medicine, pharmacy students from Keck Graduate Institute School of Pharmacy and nursing students from RCC ADN (RN) School of Nursing.

The one-day event is expected to draw over 200 students and will focus on teaching students about opioid dependence, abuse, risk of overdose, and how interprofessional teams can work together to improve opioid awareness, while ultimately improving health outcomes in the Inland Empire.

Amy S. Vermillion, associate professor, Nursing, said that interprofessional team-based learning will improve communication and bring awareness to the current opioid abuse epidemic. The goal of these educational events is to ultimately improve the quality of life of the communities we serve, by teaching future healthcare providers how to address difficult clinical and psychosocial issues with a team-based approach.

“Students will have the opportunity to gain awareness and education related to the nationwide opioid abuse epidemic and understand how interprofessional communication and collaboration can improve patient outcomes,” she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 165,000 people have died in the US from prescription opioid overdoses from 1999 to 2014. Due to the high rate of opioid abuse, dependence, and overdose of patients after exposure to opioids, the CDC released a new set of guidelines in 2016 for educating healthcare providers about opioid pain management.

Interprofessional education became the norm in 2009 when six national associations of schools in the health professions – allopathic and osteopathic medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, and public health – joined forces to collaborate on curricula development. Today, there is a national association, Interprofessional Education Collaborative, leading the framework for action among the healthcare fields.  RCC School of Nursing, UCR School of Medicine, and KGI School of Pharmacy are committed to growing their joint interprofessional program, with hopes to improve patient care for residents in the Inland Empire.