CMCC students bring knowledge of chiropractic to health-care students at large.
Interdisciplinary health care has become increasingly important. Teamwork helps facilitate more effective and efficient patient care because patients benefit from seeing health professionals with expertise specific to their condition. Also, collaboration amongst professionals ensures that no aspect of the patient’s overall health will be overlooked.
CMCC STUDENTS TAKE ACTION
Early in their chiropractic training, a number of students at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) realized the importance of fostering inter-professional learning. Consequently, a student initiative called Building Bridges has begun promoting this by educating chiropractic students at CMCC about inter-professionalism. Building Bridges is a newly established club that strives to communicate ideas between professional health-care students from various disciplines while building on interprofessional work that has previously occurred. It is run by a dedicated executive team, consisting of Luciano Di Loreto (president), Donato Policastro (vice-president), Kirsten Baxter (secretary), Sana Tahir (marketing) and Jessica Wong (communications director).
To promote interdisciplinary care, Building Bridges works at the grassroots, forming relationships at the local and school-to-school level. The club keeps Canadian chiropractic students educated on the perspectives and expertise of other health-care professions. In turn, it strives to educate students in other health-care disciplines about the chiropractic profession. This serves to enhance interprofessional relations across the spectrum of health-care students, setting the stage for future chiropractors and other health-care professionals to work together, regardless of the type of practice they choose.
BUILDING BRIDGES INITIATIVES AND PLANNED EVENTS
Building Bridges has played a key role in bringing innovative ideas to fruition. For instance, the club felt strongly about welcoming medical, and other health-care, students into CMCC’s clinics to exchange knowledge and to build an understanding of the chiropractic profession. To do this, Building Bridges worked with Dr. Richard Ruegg, associate dean of clinics at CMCC, to offer treatments, at no charge, to guest students interested in participating in the program. This opportunity, known as “Professional Courtesy to Healthcare Students” would allow these visiting observers to experience a chiropractic treatment first hand, while building a more positive and personal rapport between students of various disciplines. It is with pride that we announce that this initiative was approved and is currently being implemented.
There are also a number of novel events planned for the upcoming academic year. First of all, Building Bridges will be hosting “Collaboration in Practice: DC-MD Relationships Night.” This will be an event that welcomes a diverse panel of knowledgeable speakers to discuss patient cases. Edward Cambridge, a second-year CMCC student and project manager for the event, has worked extremely hard to organize this night. The panel will consist of chiropractors Dr. Deborah Kopansky-Giles (St. Michael’s Hospital) and Dr. Rocco Guerriero (North York Rehabilitation Centre) as well as physicians Dr. Howard Platnick (North York Rehabilitation Centre), Dr. William Watson (St. Michael’s Hospital) and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Barry Malcolm (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre).
In addition, the club has been invited to participate, once again, in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Fair at the University of Toronto. Last year, Building Bridges had the opportunity to advance chiropractic awareness among medical students at this event. It was a tremendous success, as the medical students were very curious about the chiropractic profession and CMCC’s approach towards integrative health-care.
These events, among others, are excellent opportunities for students to learn about and build interdisciplinary relations.
TREADING WITH VIGOUR
Dr. Stan Gorchynski, president of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, once said that “inter-professional collaboration is another road into the future that we must tread with vigour.” Building Bridges couldn’t agree more. Ultimately, by maintaining open communication and possessing a commitment towards health-care improvement, students can unify the health-care community and provide improved outcomes for patients.•
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