Participants during the QU Health event.
Doha, Qatar: QU Health at Qatar University (QU), recently hosted an event focused on the development of effective health care teams through the Interprofessional Education programme. The event, named ‘Being an Effective Team Player,’ highlighted the importance of cultivating teamwork skills among health professionals.
It brought together students from various health profession programmes from QU and the University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ). The activity aimed to promote an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of health professionals in a collaborative practice setting, while highlighting the benefits of interprofessional learning. In addition, the event aimed to discuss ways to improve interprofessional learning and build effective health care teams, while also addressing common communication breakdowns that can impact team environments and patient safety.
Around 355 students and 43 facilitators from QU Health colleges including the College of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, College of Dental Medicine and College of Health Sciences, and UCQ participated in the event. It also provided a space for health profession students to learn about interprofessional learning and collaborative practice and to reflect on methods to build effective teams in the health care setting.
The significance of the IPE activity lies in its emphasis on effective team communication and decision-making skills, and its call to recognize the importance of all health professionals in providing quality care to patients. Through activities like these, QU Health is paving the way for the next generation of health professionals to work collaboratively and improve patient outcomes.
The lead facilitator of this activity and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at QU’s College of Dental Medicine, Dr. Aala Daoud, commented on the event saying, “I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction between the diverse mix of students, exchanging information about their professions and eliciting shared decision making. I was really impressed with students’ attitudes towards interprofessional education and the quality of reflection. Students presented fruitful comments and were encouraged by their amazing group facilitators to freely express their point of view. Overall, I strongly feel that the interprofessional education activity successfully achieved its goal of shaping communication skills, clarifying roles and responsibilities, enhancing team skills and knowledge, and promoting collaborative practice amongst health care profession students.”
Prof. Vijay Ganji, Professor of Human Nutrition at QU and a faculty facilitator said: “I enjoyed the interaction with students from other professions. This is my first time as a facilitator. Our group interacted with each other professionally and respected other students’ perspectives. It was very pleasant to see how talented our students are.”
Omar Metwally, a student at QU’s College of Medicine, expressed his enthusiasm saying, “As a senior medical student, I was very happy and enthusiastic about being a facilitator in such an important event.
Not only because of how successful it was, but also because the values and morals that were being discussed throughout the event are main pillars that should be established in each member of the health team, and luckily, a lot of students realized how valuable they are after this event.”
