Event Description: The second Inter-professional Passport event I chose to attend was the Healthcare Team Challenge. This event consisted of two teams composed of individuals from all of the health care programs, to prepare a care plan based on a given case study, and present their plan to a panel of judges as well as a live audience. Although they prepared their plans before the presentation, during the event, they were given two twists that they were to develop recommendations for as a team and then present them to the audience.

Reflection: I found this event to be fascinating! When I initially decided to attend this event, I thought it would be an interesting presentation, further emphasizing the importance of an inter-professional healthcare team to providing superior patient care that was introduced at the Inter-Professional Healthcare Mixer. Although the presentation did build on such concepts, it ended up doing much more for my own appreciation of the importance of an inter-professional healthcare team.

First of all I thought this was a fantastic opportunity for the students involved, allowing them to get a glimpse of what it is to be part of a team of people with many different back grounds working towards a common goal. This is an opportunity that is often not given to students until they are in a practicum or actual workplace setting. I feel as though this is a great way for students to experience what it is to work in such a team, but without the pressure of caring for a living person. I really liked how they were presented a dynamic case with many interplays, that I believe would be representative of real cases they will face in the future. This provides a great opportunity for people to engage in dynamic reasoning rather than just the linear reasoning that is often associated with academia. I also appreciated the twists that were thrown in that required the teams to use their critical thinking skills in a time sensitive manner. It really highlights how patient care is ever changing, and how although a patient or case may come in with a certain set of circumstances, they are not static, but rather ever changing thus requiring a healthcare team to make new decisions, or to re-evaluate previous ones. I am confident that the participants gained some fantastic insight through this experience, but I have to say even though I was only a spectator, I did as well.

This truly was a learning experience for me. Even as a student in a professional health care program, I have to admit that I was not aware of the large number of people it takes to comprise a comprehensive healthcare team. I had always considered a health care team to consist of doctors and dentists, nurses, dietitians, therapists and pharmacist. I had never really considered that a number of other professionals including audiologists, and social workers would be considered as part of the core healthcare team. I can humbly say that this experience has proven me wrong. As this care of the family in Northern BC highlighted, the social worker and audiologist as well as the dental hygienist, played roles that would not have been able to be nearly as well addressed had they not been included. The second insight this experience gave me was how there are notable overlaps in a number of the healthcare roles. When the second twist came, and the sole family doctor became ill and unable to practice, the overlap of roles within the rest of the healthcare team enabled the missing role to be filled. Although a healthcare team would be stressed with the additional responsibilities, because of the overlap of expertise, collectively the role would be able to be adequately filled, without having a substantial impact on patient care.

Well, this truly was another excellent experience that took my learning outside of the lecture halls, and countless Power Point slides and into the real world. I have truly gained a further appreciation for the role of a healthcare team, and I hope to perhaps further my learning from the Healthcare Team Challenge, but next time from the stage rather than in the audience!