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Brief description of a community-based interprofessional education session integrating caregivers (patients' families and support systems) as part of the interprofessional team.  Goals were to increase student awareness of the unique challenges caregivers face and to work as part of an interprofessional team to address these challenges. 

Educators from nursing, medicine, physician assistant and chaplaincy programmes at three area universities collaborated with a local hospitality house to design an evening education session to be held weekly at the hospitality house. Students (Nursing, Physician Assistant, Medical, Clinical Pastoral Education residents) were assigned readings related to caregiver needs and prepared a 5-minute presentation on a caregiver self-care topic prior to the session.

During the evening activity, students learned about each other as faculty facilitators led a discussion of the readings and the social ecological model. After the discussion, students in groups of two or three interviewed a family member or caregiver and listened to his or her story. Based on the caregiver’s needs, the students recommended self-care techniques. After the session with the caregiver, students and the facilitators reconvened to debrief and discuss what was learned.