Service is in Dr. Justin Tobyas’ DNA.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in athletic training from the University of New Mexico, he continued in the field and worked at a rural hospital in Northern Indiana.
For the next 16-plus years, Dr. Tobyas worked as an athletic trainer for high schools in Wabash County, helping hundreds of students by providing top-class healthcare. During that time, he earned a master’s degree in sport and exercise psychology from Ball State University.
Following his nearly two decades of service to the hospital and a plethora of high schools, Dr. Tobyas got wind of a new venture at the Northeast Indiana Area Health Education Center in 2016.
“The opportunity was for an assistant director to help students in the high school and early college setting explore health careers and make informed choices about where they would go to school,” he said.
In just three years, Dr. Tobyas was promoted to director and helped cover parts of 17 counties ranging from parts of Michigan, Ohio, and, of course, Indiana. With that magnitude of reach, he helped create the East Central Indiana Area Health Education Center to better serve his constituents locally.
It was during this time that Dr. Tobyas earned a doctoral degree in adult and community education from Ball State’s Teachers College.
Having earned both his master’s and doctorate from Ball State, Dr. Tobyas grew quite fond of the University, and eventually found his way onto campus once again—this time for good.
Continuing his ambitions to help younger people achieve their dreams, Dr. Tobyas in April 2023 was hired as Ball State’s director of interprofessional education and practice and as assistant clinical professor of athletic training. He also serves on the College of Health’s leadership team, helping oversee the University’s Healthy Lifestyle Center.
An Immersive Experience
In just 12 months, Dr. Tobyas has made a significant impact throughout the College of Health. Through his innovative approach, he has helped develop and continue programs that immerse students in real-world experiences in professional settings.
The biggest draw is what has been dubbed the ‘Tournament of Games’, featuring simulation experiences in which students need to work together to solve problems. One example—through the assistance of Drs. Blair Mattern, Lori Porter, and Karrie Osborne—is a virtual escape room set up in Ball State’s Interprofessional Clinics.
“It’s a simulation that’s done on a computer, and you have to have a team of at least three students for the simulation to work,” Dr. Tobyas said. “They have to solve different escape room-type puzzles in order to unlock a door to let all of the faculty out.”
The reason for having three people needed to complete the escape room is to encourage cross-discipline collaboration.
“The way that it is set up is there’s certain knowledge that, for example, an audiologist would have that’s going to help solve the puzzle more quickly,” he said. “There’s also specific information that a nursing student would have that would help the puzzle be solved more quickly.
“So, if we can get the students to work in the interprofessional teams, they solve the puzzles more quickly. If it’s all a group of audiologists, they might be stuck on those nursing questions. We’re trying to bring people together and bring that concept of working together with different departments to help solve a problem.”
Another simulation experience created is called “Game of Bones,” in which students use an table to identify bones.
An anatomage table is an operating-bed sized table that provides highly accurate, 3D visualizations of human anatomy.
“We set it up as a tournament-type game,” Dr. Tobyas said. “It has four different spaces around the table, and students take turns answering the questions in a certain amount of time. The goal is to answer as many questions as possible. Can you find the femur? If you were right, you get points. And if you’re wrong, you lose points.”
In what appears to be a straightforward game, Dr. Tobyas has added a twist to continue the theme of collaboration.
“To get the students to practice in more of an interprofessional way, we decided teams would earn points based on who was on the team. Everyone got 10 points for having some health professions students on the team. Then, they got an extra 10 points for each discipline that was represented. For example, if they had three nursing students, they only got 10 points. However, if they had a nursing student, a speech and language student, and an audiology student, they automatically start out with 30 points just for having that diversity on the team.
“What the students found out was that they’re really fast when working with someone from each discipline because of their different areas of expertise.”
Trying to Change an Industry
While the study of healthcare has a set of standards and similar techniques that are needed to learn across the country, Dr. Tobyas and Ball State are separating from the rest of the collegiate landscape through the use of immersive learning and fostering a culture of collaboration.
In most university settings, students may sit through multiple lectures and write a lengthy evaluation of their learning objectives. Dr. Tobyas has taken a different approach.
“I’m more laid back and think, ‘How do we have fun with these things?’ We’re trying to get students involved. We’re trying to change the culture of not just our college but also healthcare in general, where if you were a speech and language pathology student, you should be able to go to a nursing faculty member and ask them a question.
“We’re trying to change things by making people interact with each other more. Our dean, Dr. Scott Rutledge, is also focused on that. We’re trying to keep that spirit of collaboration and build on it.”
It’s that spirit that is better preparing Ball State students for fulfilling and extraordinary careers in healthcare.
