On February 11, 2019, final year PharmD student Ms. Neda Noorani participated in the monthly Inter-Professional Education (IPE) case discussion session along with other students from Medicine, Physiotherapy, Radiology and Nursing disciplines. The broader goal of the session was to embed the culture of ‘Learn together for working together’ among students across health disciplines, ultimately leading to a ‘patient-centered care’.
For the session, a case on ‘Fracture of right little finger’ was selected, and the students collectively prepared the case under the supervision of Clinical preceptors, Faculty mentors and treating Orthopedician, and presented at Thumbay Hospital Ajman (THA) for the audience across health professions. The case learning and case presentation, both focused on clearly defined areas of expertise of each of the students, based on their health profession background, and each of them complimented the others.
During the presentation, PharmD student Ms. Neda identified the goals of antimicrobial prophylaxis, highlighted the guidelines followed while choosing antimicrobial prophylaxis and compared it with the chosen antibiotic, Cefuroxime. She said, “while choosing prophylactic antibiotic, one should keep in mind the cost, safety, pharmacokinetic profile and antimicrobial profile of the antimicrobial under consideration to prevent possible surgical site infections”. Then she discussed the post-operative medications given to the patient as well as the discharge medications with specific counselling points pertinent to their safe and effective use. She appraised the benefit of propofol as inducing agent for general anesthetic compared to other alternatives and added a note on the benefits of adding adjuvant anaesthetics in the patient. She then critically reviewed the appropriateness of all the medications given to the patient with valid drug information resources and highlighted the evidence from standard evidence-based resources.
Dr. Subish Palaian, Associate Professor and Chair of College of Pharmacy’s IPE committee commented: The IPE case discussions conducted at THA are helping PharmD students to develop a multi-professional collaborative approach at clinical practice sites diffusing the professional barriers across professions. It is also paving the way for fulfilling the College of Pharmacy’s mission statement on ‘practicing inter-professional collaboration in healthcare’, a core component of the GMU PharmD program.