Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor

Strong finish to the academic year for IPE

By Luciano Di Loreto Jessica Wong and Andrea Guidolin   

News

May 20, Toronto, ON -The
Interprofessional Education Council (IPE Council), a student run club at CMCC,
focuses on advancing collaboration between chiropractic and other health-care
professions. Throughout the 2008-09 academic year, the council has organized
and participated in a number of student-led interprofessional initiatives.



In early
fall, the IPE Council hosted the fourth Annual Interprofessional Indoor Beach
Volleyball Tournament at Balmy Beach Blast. Students from various professions,
including chiropractic, naturopathy, speech language pathology, physical
education and general education, participated in the tournament. Over $1500 was
raised in support of The Arthritis Society.

In
November, the IPE Council organized its second Annual Introductory Chiropractic
Lecture for University
of Toronto Medical students.
The night, which featured a presentation delivered by Dr. Paula Stern, CMCC’s
Director of Graduate Studies, delved into the role of chiropractic in health
care. The presentation was well received by the audience, a mix of medical and
chiropractic students.

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The IPE Council has consistently
been evaluating their events with online surveys.
In an informal survey,
as many as 84 per cent of the students indicated that they would recommend the
talk to a classmate.

In January
2009, the council was excited to be part of the Ontario Interprofessional
Health Collaborative Conference. There, we had the opportunity to present our
own research for the first time entitled “Student-Led Interprofessional
Education Revolution: Developing the Diamond Approach”. The approach focuses on
incorporating a multitude of learning environments for students to learn with,
from and about each other.

In March,
the IPE Council presented this research again at the National Health Sciences
Students' Association (NaHSSA) Conference, hosted by Queens University.
The council was awarded first prize for their research, and, as a result, it
will be published in the Journal of Interprofessional Care. In late March, over
25 CMCC students joined naturopathic and Ottawa medical
students for a weekend conference in Ottawa.
There, students had the opportunity to learn about each other’s professions at
a variety of workshops, lectures and problem-based learning sessions. In April,
sixteen CMCC students were paired with sixteen UofT medical students for the
Second Annual Student Exchange Program. Students from both programs had the
opportunity to visit each other’s campus, and learn about each other’s
profession.

The
2008-2009 academic year has been an eventful, yet rewarding, year for the IPE
Council. It could not have been possible without the support of the council’s
first-ever faculty mentors; Lenore Edmunds and Dr. Kopansky-Giles. The IPE
Council looks forward to the 2009-2010 year.

UPDATE

Next
year the IPE Council will have a great opportunity to continue to build
relationships with other professions and student organizations throughout Canada. Former
President of the IPE Council, Luciano Di Loreto, has been the first
chiropractic student elected to the Board of Directors of the National Health
Sciences Students’ Association. National Health Sciences Students' Association
(NaHSSA) was established in 2005 and is the first national interprofessional
student association in the world. NaHSSA is a network of local university and
college-based chapters that promote interprofessional education and practice
within Canada.
NaHSSA enables students to advocate for, and learn from, this form of education
through social networking and leadership opportunities. Please visit the NaHSSA
website to learn more what is occurring at the national student
interprofessional level (
http://www.nahssa.ca/en/gateway).

 


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