Out of the classroom, into the field: Piloting an interprofessional experiential exercise

Interprofessional practice is a growing part of the health care landscape, and there have been several calls for further interprofessional training during graduate education. However, many challenges exist for designing interprofessional training experiences, particularly those which effectively model real-world interactions and settings. These educational experiences can be further limited by the high stakes associated with most health care settings. This article describes Operation Bushmaster, a military field exercise that serves as an experiential, interprofessional training for students at the Uniformed Services University. The Operation Bushmaster exercise affords students the opportunity to develop unique military-specific competencies in intervention, assessment, and professionalism in a realistic, yet simulated deployed environment. The authors present the initial implementation of this exercise with psychology doctoral students and conclude with recommendations for interprofessional education in health service psychology training.