Nexus Innovation Network

The Arizona Nexus is a state Nexus that is building a collaborative community among academic and clinical organizations in Arizona. Arizona State University is the coordinator for the Arizona Nexus and currently has two approved projects involving faculty and students from Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona. 

Member since: May 2015

Intervention: Improving Health Outcomes in Independent Senior Housing through an Interprofessional Health and Social Services Center

Partners:

• Arizona State University (ASU)
• The Collaboratory on Central, formerly known as The Interprofessional Center for Health and Social Services at the Westward Ho

Occupations represented:  Students and faculty from nursing, nutrition, recreational therapy, and social work.

Overview: The Collaboratory on Central, formerly known as The Interprofessional Center for Health and Social Services at the Westward Ho is a student-run, faculty-supervised training unit that provides onsite supportive services to 300 residents of a low-income senior housing community in downtown Phoenix (the Westward Ho). Through participation in service learning experiences, students build skills in interprofessional collaboration as well as skills in their individual discipline, while increasing access to health and psychosocial care for housing community residents, the majority who are under-served older adults living with chronic illness and disability.

The initial evaluation of The Collaboratory on Central focuses on students’ knowledge and perception of interprofessional practice, their development of practice skills for interprofessional collaboration, residents’ health and psychosocial outcomes (i.e. falls, blood pressure levels; sense of community, quality of life), and the level of association between students’ interprofessional learning and residents’ outcomes.

Intervention study questions:

• What are the effects of participating in a service learning experience on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (values) of health professions students related to interprofessional collaboration and practice?
• What are the effects of receiving ongoing onsite health and social services from health professions students on residents’ baseline health and psychosocial measures?
• What is the strength of the relationship between health professions students’ development of interprofessional collaborative skills and Westward Ho residents’ longitudinal heath and psychosocial outcomes?