According to the World Health Organization, interprofessional education occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other, to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.
On March 3, RCSI Bahrain conducted its first Interprofessional Education (IPE) session with students from the Universitys School of Medicine (SC1) and School of Nursing & Midwifery (N3).The title of this session was "Conditions that threaten womens lives in childbirth and pregnancy". The session was delivered in the format of a World Cafe, where the students were divided into 10 groups of four, each with a captain to facilitate discussion.
The session began with a brief overview and an introduction to IPE. As well as considering obstetric emergencies, the students discussed cultural contexts; the roles and responsibilities of the health professional team and communication and ethical issues.Participants also watched a series of brief videos at www.healthtalk.org; CPR of a pregnant woman; maternity care in a clinic in India; patients whose lives were threatened by problems during childbirth and
pregnancy including post-partum haemorrhage and eclampsia with HELLP Syndrome.The session was organised and conducted by Ms Maeve Royston and Professor Andrew Curtain from the School of Medicine, and assisted by Ms Catherine Abouzaid and Dr Maryam Alaradi from the School of Nursing & Midwifery. Initially, the students seemed anxious and needed encouragement to engage, but by the end of the session, they participated actively and seemed to enjoy RCSI Bahrains new interprofessional learning
opportunity.