Update on Students and Interprofessional Health-care

Interprofessional health care
has become increasingly important, as health–care
workers come to understand how teamwork can facilitate more
effective and efficient patient care. The Interprofessional Committee (IPC), a
subdivision of the Student Canadian Chiropractic Association (SCCA) works to
promote and educate students on interprofessionalism. Our aim is to enhance
interprofessional communication and develop relations between chiropractic
students and other health-care professionals.

One of IPC’s goals is to keep Canadian chiropractic students
informed of news and events of other student health professional organizations,
such as the Canadian Interprofessional Student Network (CISN) and the National
Health Sciences Students’ Association (NaHSSA), amongst others, as they pertain
to interprofessionalism.

Every year the IPC co-chairs attend the NaHSSA annual conference. As a
diverse network of university and college-based chapters, NaHSSA seeks to
address the unmet need of actively involving Canada's health science students in
interprofessional education while promoting the attitudes, skills, and
behaviours necessary to provide collaborative patient-centred care. This year,
Chadwick Chung and I attended the NaHSSA conference in London,
Ontario, where we had the opportunity to
network with other interprofessional health-care students from all over Canada and listen to various presenters speaking
about integrating health professions in Canada and teamwork.

Overall, IPC serves to enhance interdisciplinary relations
for chiropractic students and will ultimately set the stage for future
chiropractors and other health-care professionals to work together.

There are a number of interprofessional events that have
taken place this school year. The third annual charity “Future Health
Professionals” Beach Volleyball Tournament held in September raised
approximately $1,200 in support of the Arthritis Society and the third
annual Higher Learning Pool Mixer
raised approximately $260 in support of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Recent events have also included Healthcare Integration in
Practice Night which demonstrated the diverse approach of working within a team
of health-care professionals in providing optimal patient care.