At the University of Florida Academic Health Center, interprofessional education is just a walk across the street or down the hall.
“We don’t have to travel somewhere or take the day off,” said Kim Dunleavy, Ph.D., a physical therapist, clinical professor and director of community engagement for the Doctor of Physical Therapy, or D.P.T., program at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions. “And we don’t have to source more equipment. We have the wheelchairs that we can bring into the dental lab, wheel them up and take them back.”
With UF’s six health colleges co-located on a single campus, practitioners-in-training across disciplines can collaborate without the logistical hurdles that often deter interdisciplinary healthcare education elsewhere. It’s this distinct advantage that laid the foundation for “Making Safe Moves,” an interprofessional education experience established in 2016 that gives first-year Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry, or D.M.D., and physical therapy students an opportunity to deepen their skills through valuable knowledge exchange.
The UF Health system defines the core ethos of interprofessional education, or IPE, as an effort to transform modern healthcare from fragmentation to a position of strength by preparing practitioners to enter the workforce as integrated, collaborative team members. Creating this environment starts with practicing effective peer-to-peer communication.
During the April 15, 2026, session of Making Safe Moves, students traded clinical skills to enhance care for patients with conditions affecting mobility. Physical therapy students coached future dentists on the proper body mechanics required for safe patient transfers, specifically using a broad base of support and leg-driven lifts rather than upper-body strain to prevent injury.
“Some of these techniques you, as dental students in the future, may not be doing yourself,” Dunleavy told the group. “You could be training your dental assistants, your hygienists or your staff to help you…”
In turn, the dental students trained their physical therapy peers to recognize systemic oral health signals and demonstrated adaptive hygiene aids for patients with limited upper-extremity mobility.
“The students love working with each other, and they get a lot of benefit out of being able to teach something to somebody who doesn’t actually know what they’ve already been taught,” Dunleavy said.
For many first-year dental students, the exercise is a stark departure from their standard curriculum. This early in their dental school journey, students practice exclusively on dental forms and haven’t yet worked with real patients. This IPE is their first time putting hands on actual people in a clinical setting, even if staged.
This experience is a crash course in health literacy, proper body mechanics and the ethical commitment to the patient consent process.
Olga Ensz, D.M.D., M.P.H., a clinical associate professor and director of community-based programming at the UF College of Dentistry, prepared her students for the sudden “intimacy” of the exercise.
“There are a lot of very physical aspects of this; you’re going to be getting very close,” Ensz said. “And our physical therapy students are used to that, but our dental students are probably not so used to that.”
To ease patient anxiety, students are encouraged to explain exactly where their hands will be placed and what each step of a transfer will look like. Rachel Sigmund, a third-year physical therapy student who helped oversee the event, echoed this necessity.
“We [as practitioners] know the steps we’re going to do, but the patients might not be fully aware,” Sigmund said.
“So effectively communicating, ‘Here is what we’re going to do to transfer you to that chair,’ is very important. Explaining where we’re going to place our hands, where their hands will be, and how they’ll be safe to help ease our patients into that transfer is very, very important,” Sigmund said.
As the physical therapy students teach their dental counterparts how to safely move patients, they are also teaching them how to safeguard the long-term sustainability of their own careers.
Janeen Blythe, P.T., a physical therapist and research coordinator for a nursery and landscape worker back pain prevention project, noted that dentists and dental hygienists often work in a “hunched-over position.”
Having participated in the inaugural Making Safe Moves as a student in 2016, Blythe said physical therapy students use this opportunity to teach proper sitting techniques, stretching and reversal exercises to help future dentists “ensure longevity in their profession.”
Anthony Perez, a first-year physical therapy student, emphasized the importance of mechanics during physical transfers.
“A lot of times, people try to use their upper body to lift up patients, and that’s when you hurt your back or some upper body part, like your shoulder,” Perez said. “So, it’s important to get a wide base of support and push through your legs to lift the patient.”
Learning these safe transfer techniques empowers future dentists to treat a broader range of patient populations. Ensz challenged her students to recognize how mastering these physical skills directly combats health disparities.
“I hope that you’ll see the benefits of this and also the benefits to our patients, especially those who have struggled with access to care because of these various accessibility issues,” Ensz said.
The learning, however, is a two-way street. While physical therapy students teach proper movement, the dental students teach the vital importance of what Dunleavy acknowledges is an “underemphasized area” of whole-body healthcare: oral health.
Dental students equip their peers with practical tools they can take back to their outpatient clinics. Ensz noted that the students introduce “different adaptive dental hygiene aids,” including specialized toothbrushes and flossing devices that physical therapists can recommend to patients with “limitations in upper extremity mobility.”
Blythe emphasized the value of this knowledge, explaining that physical therapists are often the first line of defense for patients recovering from major surgeries. In a post-surgery immunocompromised state, neglected oral hygiene can escalate into systemic infection risks.
“You might say, ‘I wanted to discuss your oral care and how it might impact your overall healing and infection risk,’” Blythe explained. “When students feel confident addressing this topic, it opens the door for them to potentially bring up oral health concerns with patients.”
The physical therapy students clearly see the vital connection between their future practice and dental health.
“When a patient is in pain, the last thing they think about is their dental hygiene,” said Marcelo Manrique, a first-year physical therapy student.
By anchoring the collaboration in pedagogically sound educational principles, this comprehension has a lasting impact on both groups of future practitioners.
“If we go back to educational principles — the engagement, the relevance, the opportunity to practice, and the satisfaction they get out of teaching somebody else — that just creates something that students really like and thrive on,” Dunleavy said.