August 4, 2021
“Physicians and nurses often work as a close-knit team,” says Celia Walker, an undergraduate medical student at the University of Calgary. “To more effectively and respectfully work together, I think it is valuable to step into each other’s shoes and experience what it’s like to have the responsibilities of another profession.” Photo supplied.
Story by Alison Eresman
When most of Alberta shut down a year-and-a-half ago in response to the pandemic, the ripples affected medical students in the University of Calgary’s Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) program.
By the fall of 2020, students entering their third and final year, known as clerkship, found themselves with a few weeks to spare at the beginning of the semester, to allow time for the previous class to finish their clinical rotations.
“We had the opportunity to do something novel,” says Dr. Kevin Busche, assistant dean, UME, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary (UCalgary). “After a lot of brainstorming among all the leaders in UME, we thought we could actually improve the learning that our students get in interprofessional education.”
So Busche and his colleagues created the Interprofessional Education (IPE) Elective, an initiative that allows UME students to spend a week working alongside healthcare providers in other professions and fields of study.
“Students have been introduced to the roles of other healthcare providers over the course of the curriculum,” he adds. “But this is really the first time that we’ve had a rotation in the clerkship where students would actually go out into a healthcare setting to spend time side-by-side with another healthcare provider — and actually learn what they do, and how they do it.”
To facilitate the IPE elective, UCalgary approached Alberta Health Services’ Talent Acquisition team to help find healthcare professionals to participate. Senior advisor Sarah McDonald proved instrumental in enlisting participants to host students from a variety of healthcare fields such as respiratory therapy, physiotherapy, social work, midwifery, optometrists and more.
“UCalgary has been fantastic to work with,” she says. “We’re all in this together and working in good faith. Both parties want to make the most successful experience for everyone participating. We want to make sure it’s positive for the AHS staff participating and that students are getting a robust and diverse experience.”
For student Christopher Powell, his IPE elective experience with a midwifery clinic has shaped his career trajectory.
Powell, who has a PhD and a Masters degree in maternal fetal medicine, started medical school with aspirations of becoming a general practitioner, with a focus on low-risk obstetric medicine. His goal was to develop a model that builds a network of professionals, including physicians and midwifes, around the patient, based on the patient’s specific needs and care plan.
“But it turns out I may not be needed,” he says. “What I observed is an already existing and excellent collaboration between physicians and midwives. The model I was hoping to implement already exists, so my effort to strike out and lay groundwork for those connections would be redundant.
“I think all these professionals are already doing such a great job, so I need to focus my education and my training on another area of medicine,” he adds. “That was a big take-home message for me.”
The IPE elective experience also made an impact on fellow student Celia Walker.
“It was such a valuable experience. Any future class would be lucky to have this addition to their medical education,” says Walker “I’ve been raving about it since!”
Walker chose to do her IPE elective in the Emergency Department at Rockyview General Hospital as an opportunity to gain more technical and practical experience.
“I wanted to have more hands-on experience in starting IVs, putting in urinary catheters and taking vitals,” she says. “Working with a nurse was really appealing for that reason, because I know they have such a hands-on role, especially in the Emergency Department.
“Physicians and nurses often work as a close-knit team. To more effectively and respectfully work together, I think it’s valuable to step into each other’s shoes and experience what it’s like to have the responsibilities of another profession.”
Thanks to the success of the IPE electives, the UME program will offer them again this fall as the next cohort of students begin their clerkship.
“All of us in UME genuinely appreciate the work from all our healthcare colleagues to provide this experience for our students,” adds Busche.
“It’s amazing that, very much at the last minute, all of these individuals signed up for the chance to have a student work with them, so they can share what they do.”
