Kristen Will, PhD, MHPE, PA-C
Assistant Dean of Clinical Programs and Accreditation, Clinical Associate Professor
College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University
Kristen K. Will, PhD, MHPE, PA-C serves as the Assistant Dean of Clinical Programs and Accreditation within the College of Health Solutions and is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Science of Health Care Delivery. Prior to her tenure at ASU, she worked as a senior Physician Assistant at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. She is the immediate past chair for the National Collaborative for Improving the Clinical Learning Environment and serves on the Accreditation Review Commission for the education of Physician Assistants. Her research interests include IPECP, use of big data and the EHR to study team-based care models.

Presenting at the Nexus Summit:

Health care is in trouble. COVID-19 has reminded us of unacceptable disparities across many vulnerable groups. Providers are exhausted and choosing to retire and/or seek other careers. The National Academies are producing a plethora of reports on how to improve every component of our challenged health care system, especially primary care and long-term care. What better time to activate the interprofessional nexus to demonstrate its impact on solving important problems in real time? Objectives 1. Provide examples of activating the Nexus to reduce health disparities. 2. Share successful…
Interprofessional collaborative practice is increasingly required to achieve outcomes that matter most to individuals, families, communities and the health of populations. Interprofessional education has been widely recognized as critical to prepare future health professionals for effective collaborative practice. Increasingly, interprofessional educators are working to expand partnerships with practice to expand opportunities for learners to engage in interprofessional collaborative practice before graduation. Multiple national organizations are developing tools to support ongoing…
The U.S. Health System is under immense stress given the global events of the COVID-19 pandemic, aging populations with increased chronic disease burden and increasing levels of health disparities in vulnerable populations. These events have highlighted the importance of primary care in our society, now more than ever. Yet, national trends continue to demonstrate fewer healthcare professions students entering into primary care fields. Through a dynamic partnership with a large health system and a public university, an interdisciplinary research team have developed a unique process of…
Despite many positive benefits, electronic health records (EHRs) are a major source of stress and dissatisfaction for providers and team members. In our ongoing project to transform primary care, we sought to identify priorities for optimizing interprofessional primary care. The top-rated choices from team members all involved optimizing the EHR. We developed a multi-faceted approach to understand how the EHR could be optimized for improved teaming and efficiency. This approach included focus group interviews, discussions with EHR experts and a modified Delphi survey to determine priorities…
Many organizations desire to begin to develop and implement structures and processes that will lead to an optimal interprofessional clinical learning environment (IP-CLE). A readiness tool that focuses on the ability for institutions/organizations to assess their current state of readiness and the structures and processes needed to achieve the optimal IP-CLE may be a useful tool for many. The National Collaborative for Improving the Clinical Learning Environment (NCICLE) describes a systematic process to create a needs assessment tool founded in interprofessional education and collaboration…