South Middlesex Times

Rutgers Health at 10: Interprofessional Education for Better Health Outcomes

Apr 26 2024

Denise Rodgers, the vice chancellor for interprofessional programs at Rutgers Health, highlighted the importance of effective communication in the healthcare system, stating that, "Anytime someone dies from an error in a hospital there are lots of after-action reports to shed light on what happened."

Rodgers emphasized the collaborative nature of healthcare, especially in scenarios like stroke care, noting, "When someone has a stroke, it’s doctors and nurses who save their life, but it’s everyone else who gives them their life back."

A 2023 literature review, co-authored by researchers at Rutgers’ health sciences libraries, emphasized the significance of teamwork in healthcare, stating that, "To improve the quality of patient care, health care professionals must not only work together as a team, but learn together as a team."

Reflecting on the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodgers pointed out the difficulties in creating coherent healthcare teams when professionals are constantly changing, stating, "How can we even think about creating coherent health care teams when people don’t know their colleagues?"

As Rutgers Health focuses on training future healthcare professionals in team-based care, Rodgers remains committed to addressing disparities in health outcomes, stating, "As we seek to train a new generation of health care professionals in team-based care we remain ever mindful of the challenges we face as we strive to reduce and eventually eliminate disparities in health outcomes by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status."