The first Annual International Interprofessional Case Competition took place on November 07, 2021. The idea was initiated by the College of Pharmacy at Gulf Medical University. The GMU organizing team includes Dr. Sherief (Pharmacy Dean), Dr. Eman (Director of the Center for Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice – IPERP) and Dr. Dixon (Chair of the Interprofessional Education Committee. The competition was coordinated by Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Dixon was one of the judges for the competition. Students were given a case to solve one month before the evaluation and they submitted a reflection report and video recording of the case presentation before answering questions by the judges on November 07, 2021. In the first annual competition, students from the following institutions formed multi-institutional, multi-professional teams to work on a case and present. Each team had a student from the following institutions:
- Gulf Medical University, UAE
- Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
- Washington State University, USA
- UT Health San Antonio, USA
- RAK Medical & Health Sciences University, UAE
- Qatar University, Qatar
The following GMU students participated in the competition and their experience in their words were as follows.
- Team 1 GMU student Fatima (Physiotherapy): “I am glad I got the opportunity to participate in this competition as it was a great platform for me to learn about inter-professional healthcare and international work practices.”
- Team 2 GMU student, Judi (Medicine): “It was an excellent team I could work on to solve a complex case. It was exciting for me to learn how other professional students approach the case.”
- Team 3 GMU student, Judith (Pharmacy): “Interprofessional education is a hallmark of any healthcare system. When I took part in this competition, I truly got to experience the essence of a healthcare professional’s life. Each and every one of us had a different perspective on the patient’s case and we all bounced ideas off each other to optimize his care in the best way possible. Taking part in this competition made me one step closer towards a real healthcare setting and made me better realize my role in the same.”
- Team 4 GMU student, Victor (Pharmacy): “It was a great and challenging experience, from working together to find appropriate meeting times across our various time zone to working on the case. It was a great platform to learn how to work together in seemingly tough conditions with other healthcare professionals.”
- Team 5 GMU student, Sonia (Nursing): “It was a new and exciting experience for me to be a part of this international case competition! It inspired me to work harder and to be a proactive healthcare team player in the future!”
Vice Chancellor for Quality & Global Engagement and Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Prof. Sherief Khalifa commented: “This International Interprofessional Case Competition was a great experience for our GMU students across all health professions. We insisted that the teams are not only interprofessional but also multi-institutional. This way students focus less on winning and more on interprofessional practice. At the end, all institutions are winners!”