Harvard Art Museums
Integrated Teaching Unit (ITU) Teambuilding
In 2009, multi-disciplinary teambuilding museum workshops for the Brigham’s Integrated Teaching Unit (ITU) inpatient general medicine rotation were established with the goals of improving awareness of team dynamics and removing hierarchical barriers to communication; promoting collaborative thinking and problem solving; creating psychological safety and nurturing relationships amongst team members. ITU teams include attending physicians, nurses, residents, interns, medical students, and fellows. The program has served more than 100 teams since its inception.
Once a month, the ITU team joins a highly skilled museum educator at a local art museum. Over the course of the two hours, the team engages in a variety of museum-based activities that encourage collaborative problem solving, activate listening skills, invite the expression of multiple perspectives, and bring the team together for reflective discussions about the challenges and rewards of their shared profession. ITU is led by Corinne Zimmermann.
This Brigham Bulletin article shares additional information about this program.
Corinne Zimmermann has been a museum educator for thirty years and is the founder of Corinne Zimmermann Consultancy. She works with a broad range of healthcare professionals, including educators, interprofessional hospital teams, residency programs, and medical students; and organizations including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, and Emory School of Medicine. Since 2010, she has led the Brigham’s museum-based ITU team building program. She is a founding co-director of the Harvard Macy Institute’s Art Museum-based Health Professions Education Fellowship and co-founder of VTS@Work, which offers interprofessional training and certification in the Visual Thinking Strategies. She is the co-author of the forthcoming book Activating the Art Museum for Partnerships with Health Professionals (Rowman & Littlefield, Spring 2023).
