The main goal of the Bonnie Wesorick Center for Health Care Transformation within the Kirkhof College of Nursing at Grand Valley State University is to provide scholarly leadership that unifies interdisciplinary healers in the research and implementation work required to revamp practice at the point of care.

One way of achieving this transformation is through the Wesorick Center Distinguished Lectureship, which draws notable speakers involved in the health care field to GVSU to share knowledge specific to his or her given background.

On Wednesday, Nov. 12, as the next installment of the lectureship series, the center will host Thomas Viggiano, a member of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel and professor of medicine and medical education at Mayo Clinic.

The presentation, “Interprofessional Education & Collaborative Practice: Advancing Person-Centered Care,” will be held at 10 a.m. in the Loosemore Auditorium on the Pew Campus.

“The goal of the lectureship is to offer students, faculty, practice and interprofessional colleagues a ‘high impact’ learning opportunity to engage with an interprofessional champion who exemplifies the core beliefs and vision of Bonnie Wesorick,” said Evelyn Clingerman, executive director at the Bonnie Wesorick Center for Health Care Transformation. “Once a year we take time from our schedule to honor the establishment of the center and Bonnie’s legacy.

“This year we gave it a lot of thought and we really reached out to a discipline outside of nursing and to someone who is a great educator. This gentleman is internationally renowned for his work in medicine.”

Viggiano also serves as chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Faculty Affairs and as a member of the board of directors for the International Association of Medical Science Educators. He has worked to develop competency-based education, entrustable professional activities and overall cultural transformation – objectives that, according to Clingerman, align with the ideology at the Wesorick Center for Health Care Transformation.

“Our real goal is that people will graduate being highly prepared to act out the role of an interprofessional collaborative partner on a healthcare team such that they come with the qualities and characteristics that are needed to do this work,” Clingerman said. “It really means that healthcare professionals come together, not just to work as a team, but to learn with, from and about one another.

“We learn about how it is to work with someone with a scope of practice that is different from our own and to learn to deliver the highest quality care we can offer patients today.”

Clingerman believes that those who attend the lecture will take away a sense of appreciation both for Viggiano and for themselves as future healthcare providers.

“Many of them will take away some real gems; some real pearls of wisdom,” she said. “Viggiano has an excellent vision of intra education in healthcare.

“His vision and his extensive background in education and medicine really brought him to the top of the list. We all have something we can learn, and he is clearly a great educator.”

While the lecture is free to attend, seating for the event is limited. For more information or to reserve seats, visit
www.gvsu.edu/wesorick or call (616) 331-7184.

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