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Paradigm shift in health sciences: team-centred learning turning heads |
Interdisciplinary initiatives unique in Canada
Folio Staff
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A popular and inventive interdisciplinary health sciences course, offered only at the University of Alberta and part of a larger team focus, is quietly gaining attention across Canada.
Other universities and Health Canada are taking a closer look at Int D 410, which began as an elective with 25 students eight years ago. It currently involves more than 130 students and will have more than 400 in January as faculties begin to make it mandatory.
Int D 410 draws students from the six health-sciences faculties to work in teams with patient case scenarios involving family medicine, mental health issues and substance abuse. The future health-care professionals sit down "on the job" for a group assessment before they head out to the working world. It means everyone benefits from hearing an assessment from a nursing, nutritionist, pharmacist or medical point of view, to give a few examples.
"It puts the U of A at a big advantage for our health-science students because all of our students in the future will be graduating with interdisciplinary education as a component... I think that’s a big plus for U of A grads," says Raheem Kherani. He’s a third-year medical student and U of A pharmacy graduate who took the course last year.
Kherani says, "You’re less hesitant to stop them in the hallway and ask a question or clarify one because you know where their realm of expertise lies." Forearmed with this knowledge, these future doctors, nurses, nutritionists, therapists and dentists have a broader knowledge base and, more important, says Kherani, more confidence. Ultimately, it means providing better patient care.
Kherani is active in student groups promoting interdisciplinary initiatives and he helped develop two pilot projects involving hypertension and cardiovascular management. The first involved medical and pharmacy students assessing hypertension, while the cardiovascular case brought eight disciplines together assessing a patient with chest pains in an emergency room, at the pre-operative stage, then at the pre-discharge moment.
"We certainly can break down some stereotypes in terms of attitudes one profession may have over the other," says Dr. Don Philippon, executive director of the Coordinating Council of Health Sciences deans. And it’s drawing the attention of health-care professionals from other parts of Canada. Moira Bazin, Int D 410 program coordinator, says Health Canada has recently given money to the U of A to produce video teaching materials for undergraduate students and Health Canada employees.
Team-centred learning now includes clinical placements as well. Last spring, a group of U of A students headed to High Prairie and Slave Lake, Alta. for their practicums. The pilot projects included a pharmacy, nursing, occupational therapy and nutrition student. Former student Tonya Walton, now a registered dietician at the Red Deer Regional Hospital, says, "Everybody thinks their area is the most important but when you interview a patient, you realize this may not be the [case]."
In High Prairie, she remembers one home-care assessment at an elderly patient’s home. Walton assumed fear of malnutrition would be a top concern; she was wrong. "The patient said safety around the house was key." As a result, the occupational therapist on her team had a greater role to play.
There are plans to continue the team clinical placements this spring in Central and Eastern Alberta and at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital.
What’s next? More interdisciplinary collaborations like physiotherapy and medical students learning the musculoskeletal block in medicine together. "It’s a major challenge for the university itself," says Philippon. Stretching faculty resources and coordinating curriculum schedules for numerous disciplines can be a logistical nightmare, but everyone is prepared to make it work, he says.
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