Qatar University (QU) Health Interprofessional Education Program with the Interprofessional Education Students’ Association (IPE) in Qatar recently hosted their 7th Annual IPE Forum.
The face-to-face event took place at the new College of Education, Qatar University, and lasted for 7 hours and had around 200 attendees from Qatar University’s College of Pharmacy (CPH), College of Health Sciences (CHS), College of Medicine (CMED) and College of Dental Medicine (CDDM) alongside peers from the University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ), the University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST) and Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar (WCM-Q).
The event started with welcoming remarks by the Vice President for Health and Medical Sciences Professor Asmaa Ali Althani congratulating the students on the great IPE initiatives that have been led and organized by students from all health and medical colleges in Qatar. She said: ‘what makes IPE activities special is the harmony of the effective collaboration between different health profession backgrounds, which enables the improvement of critical thinking and communication skills of a health care professional’.
She added: ‘This acquisition of cross-learning will affect the students ’personal and professional lives positively and inspire them to be competent leaders who can make positive changes in the health sector in the State of Qatar’.
Dr. Alla El-Awaisi, CPH Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and the QU Health Chair of the Interprofessional Education Committee then warmly welcomed all participants, judges, and attendees. Dr. Alla expressed being proud to see students from the different health professions working hand in hand to ensure the forum is a success and wished the participants all the best. This was followed by remarks from Ms. Jawaher Baraka, the President of the IPE Student Association, and a Fourth Year CMED student. The association president gave the attendees an insight into the IPE Student association and the goals of the event. In her speech, she stated: “As we strive to do our best to excel and become active contributors to the wellbeing of our societies, it is crucial that we promote collaboration and provide health majoring students with the encouraging environment that helps them develop and live up to their career responsibilities”. Second Year CPH student Sondus Jawad, the Secretary of the IPE Students’ Association, and Second Year CMED student Menatalla Said, the Events Coordinator of the IPE Students’ Association took the lead as Masters of the Ceremony. The event progressed with a speech about Mental Health Stigma in Healthcare Professionals that was presented by a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Hamad Medical Corporation Dr. Suhaila Ghuloum.
The forum consisted of the healthcare team challenge and oral and poster presentations. Additionally, the art competition winners were also announced in this forum. The oral and poster presentations revolved around the themes of “Advocating for your profession” and “Sharing an IPE Experience”. The judges for the oral and poster presentations were Dr. Rozaimi Razal, CHS Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Dr. Hanan Khalil, CHS Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy, Mr. Norman Wong, UDST Pharmacy Technician Lead Instructor at the School of Health Sciences, Ms. Amal Ahmed, UCQ Biological Sciences Instructor, and Ms. Sawsan AlMukdad, Pharmacy Graduate and WCMQ Research Specialist.
The healthcare team challenge had four teams with 8 members for each team from different healthcare professions. The teams were assigned a case of stroke for which they are required to come up with an ideal management plan. Each team was assisted by a mentor and a co-mentor to ensure that the teams fulfilled the goals of the challenge and meet the interprofessional education criteria. As for the judges for this year’s event, the challenge had Dr. Suhaila Ghuloum, Ms. Noof Alkuwari a pediatric surgery nurse at Sidra Medicine, Dr. Behi Nikaiin and Dr. Heba Gendil UDST faculty members, and Dr. Dilshad Piran, UCQ faculty member. Each team presented their care plan and answered a question about the case following their presentation. Following that, each group received feedback from the judges on their performance and areas of improvement. The winning team was determined after receiving the votes from all the judges based on the advised plan, interprofessional practice, and the clinical approach of the health care plan.
As for the results, the winners of the art competition were CMED student Ms. Amira Bassel Kashkoul, followed by CPH student Ms. Rama Kurdi. The first place in the oral presentation was secured by CMED student Sama Aldori who presented ‘Day in a life of a medical student’. The second place was awarded to CPH students Dana Mustafa, Taimaa Hejazi, and Lana Kattan who presented ‘How Old is Your Heart? Ask Your Pharmacist!’ and finally, the third place was earned by CPH student Fatima Nazar who presented ‘‘Where I belong!’. As for poster presentations, first place was won by CHS Physiotherapy students Somaia Elmak and Reem Ahed Hammed, who presented ‘Meet the Physios’. The second place was secured by CPH students Abrar Abdelrahman, Asmaa Badreldin, and Sara Mohammed who presented “Consuming the unknown”. Finally, third place was awarded to UDST students Raniah Farooq and Muhab Faisal, who presented a poster entitled ‘Role of a Pharmacy Technician’.
Finally, Team 4 was announced the winner of the healthcare challenge of the 7th IPE forum, the members were CPH student Nassima Zerouali, CMED student Amna Zar, UCQ student Safa Mukadam, CHS student Ameena Abdulrahman, CMED student Sara Mohsen, UDST student Laila Alqodsi from Dental Hygiene, CPH student Alaa Shams, and CHS student Salma Ahmed, under the mentorship of Dr. Iqrah Qurishi HMC Clinical Pharmacist and CPH student Ms. Fatima Albatarni.
Following the event, Dr. Suhaila Ghuloum, the forum’s keynote speaker, commented: ‘The IPE forum was an excellent and inspiring event that promotes interprofessional education among healthcare providers; training students to work collaboratively for best patient care outcomes’.
Source: QATAR UNIVERSITY