DOHA: University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ) nursing instructors recently created a situation to “foster interprofessional education between students in various healthcare disciplines”.
In the situation, a woman brings her husband to the hospital’s Emergency Department. He has Type 1 diabetes and has been taking insulin shots regularly for the past year. This week he came down with a stomach flu, and a couple of days ago stopped taking insulin.
Now, he is confused and upset and needs medical care. A team of 72 nursing and pharmacy students go to work on assessing him and prescribing treatment.
“In their real working lives, nurses collaborate with other healthcare professionals in the delivery of patient care,” says Roxanne Zeifflie, UCQ nursing instructor. “During this workshop, our nursing students and pharmacy students go through all the stages they would go through from emergency room care, to hospital admission, to the discharge plan.”
“We believe that this is a very effective strategy in teaching students about complex problems,” says Zohra Hasnani-Samnani, UCQ Nursing Instructor.
Understanding what other healthcare professions have to offer is very important to nursing, says nursing instructor Merry Jo Levers. UCQ student Mihi Chandrarante agrees. “I know more now about the different roles of pharmacy and nursing students and how we can work together, and that helps me to be a better nurse,” she says.
At the same time, fellow student Mohammed Mustafa points out, “While our professions are 99pc the same, as nurses we focus more on direct patient care.”
“And pharmacy focuses more on how medications affect the patient’s body,” adds Gahryman Mayhano.
Hebatallah Deghady, Teaching assistant at QU appreciated the training.
The Peninsula
