Ninety-four students from Qatar University College of Pharmacy (QU-CPH), Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) and University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ) participated in a workshop on “Introduction to Interprofessional Education (IPE)”.
The workshop, which was organised by IPE Committee and hosted at WCM-Q, aimed to foster collaboration among various health care professions.
Students were divided into 12 multi-disciplinary groups and engaged in a series of exercises under the supervision of facilitators from CPH, WCM-Q, CNA-Q and UCQ. They participated in an ice-breaker activity followed by a task in which they matched professions with a variety of medical competencies.
The students then reviewed a patient case study which studied the journey of an elderly patient from admission to discharge. Using clinical reasoning discussions, they identified the patient’s needs, defined how each member of the team could assist in addressing them, and learned how as a team, they were best placed to provide evidence-based, holistic and timely care.
CPH Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Chair of the Interprofessional Education Committee Dr Alla El Awaisi said: “The IPE exercises are proving to be extremely effective vehicles for allowing students of different disciplines to develop mutual understanding and respect for one another’s professional expertise. In addition, the students are developing an ease of communicating with one another in open, honest and professional ways, which is vitally important in a care-giving scenario."
CPH Associate Professor Dr Nadir Kheir said: “IPE is increasingly adopted in health education in the developed world, and definitely Qatar is leading in this direction. Health care students across Qatar are now enjoying this advanced strategy of education, and are learning in an environment that brings them together as a team from an early stage in their career. This way, we are helping shape the future health care delivery in a way that had never been seen before, and the result will be an enhanced health care delivery which in turn will be reflected in a better quality of life for our patients.”
