Frances Vlasses, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN
Co-Director, Loyola Institute for Transformative Interprofessional Education
Loyola University Chicago
Dr. Vlasses is the Inaugural Co-Director of the Institute for Transformative Interprofessional Education at Loyola University Chicago where she is Professor Emeritus of Nursing and Family Medicine. She has successfully secured funding to lead innovation in care delivery redesign and team education to improve collaboration and broaden students understanding the communities they serve.

Presenting at the Nexus Summit:

A significant assumption is that providing learners with interprofessional education will lead to high-functioning collaborative teams in clinical practice. Models for "how to" ensure that IPE leads to collaborative practice have been sparse until now. Based on the experience of decades of integration of IPE into community family medicine practices, and using an inductive process, we developed the Loyola I-Transform-2Act Model. This model describes a three-step process for ensuring that IPE does indeed lead to high-functioning teams that are role-modeling effective collaborative practice. The…
The word “provider” is not OK to use anymore. What other words need to be removed from the lexicon of high-functioning teams? Creating a safe space is critical to the formation of high-functioning teams, and the lexicon of the team is an important element of creating this safe space. Each member of the care team brings with them their own profession’s culture and lexicon. Unfortunately, commonly used words and phrases unintentionally impair team functioning, because they may exclude or diminish the talents of other professions. To ensure every team member is equally valued and respected, it…