Doha, Qatar: The Interprofessional Education (IPE) Office at Qatar University Health (QU Health) organised an IPE activity under the title “Interprofessional Education Activity: Smoking Cessation.”
The activity lasted for two hours and included 361 students from the Medicine, Dental Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Biomedical Sciences programs at Qatar University and the University Of Calgary, Qatar. The students were divided into 42 interprofessional groups, each with their respective facilitators.
The activity focused on Saleh, a 67-year-old retired factory worker who sought help by calling paramedics and was subsequently brought to the hospital. Students engaged in discussions about Saleh’s condition, explored methods to assess and enhance her well-being, and considered the involvement of various health professions in her care. After her condition stabilised, Saleh was discharged and referred to a smoking cessation programme.
Reflecting on her experience, Dr. Lily O’Hara, Associate Professor of Public Health at QU University and the lead facilitator of this activity, said: “This IPE activity provided an excellent opportunity for students from six health professions to learn with, from, and about each other to address the issue of tobacco usage. Working collaboratively, the students then participated in a role-play in which they worked with a community member, played by their facilitator, to help them move towards smoking cessation.”
Dr. Mohammed Ali Al Hamdani, Assistant Professor of Public Health at QU University, added: “The role-play and the emphasis on student engagement, through both knowledge sharing and creativity, are key to the success of the IPE activity. For example, the students zoomed in on the most relevant aspects of their discipline and shared their knowledge. They also sketched diagrams of risk factors related to smoking. ”
