(originally published in the Weal - March 2019)

Paramedics, lab techs, nurses, doctors and more filled the Senator Burns building in the name of patient care and how they can all work better as a team.

Students from SAIT, U of C, Bow Valley College and Mount Royal University came to SAIT campus on Feb. 23 for the Healthcare Interprofessional Education (HIPE) Club’s Hospital Day.

“The balance of real-life, hands-on simulations and the learning about other disciplines is such an advantage,” said Jennifer Stefura, a register respiratory therapist and SAIT instructor.

Stefura is also the staff coordinator of the HIPE club on campus.

That attitude of inclusive work spaces was the central point of the event. This is the second year that SAIT has hosted HIPE Hospital Day and the organizers are thrilled that the event is growing in leaps and bounds.

“We’ve doubled this attendance this year,” said Stefura, during the introductions on Saturday morning.

The event included three simulations and three demonstrations. 

Each group of five or six students navigated the simulations—an emergency room, an intensive care unit and a patient within a ward—that included actors so that the students could learn in a hands-on environment.

David Wei, a member of SAIT medical laboratory science club was equally excited to share what they do with other professions.

“It’s a great way to put us out there as a part of the medical community.”

The laboratory science demonstration covered several topics, including different testing techniques, blood typing and how med labs process the samples that are sent to them.

The teams moved through the simulations together throughout the day, and many said that by the end of the day, they’d developed easier and quicker communication skills among their team.

That, said Akuffo, was the point of the event and the importance of interprofessional communication can be a valuable skill that is necessary in the workplace.

“At present, I don’t think there’s any other platform that has that.”

The participants agreed and many saw an improvement in how they saw the other professions around them and their roles.

Jamie Boyd, a third-year nursing student at the U of C, was very pleased with the whole experience.

“There were a lot of skills that we can take with us into the real world.”

David Patterson, a SAIT student in the primary care paramedic program found himself wanting to do more simulations even as the day ended. 

“Let’s do another one,” he said as his team finished their simulation in the ICU room.

“Right now, I’d rather be in a hospital setting than in the truck,” he added.

His enthusiasm was shared by his teammate, Naman Siddiqu, who is a medical student at the U of C.

“You don’t learn like this in a lecture theatre.”