Doha: Qatar University’s (QU’s) Health Interprofessional Education Program with the Interprofessional Education Students’ Association in Qatar in collaboration with the UK Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) in the UK, collaborated on the first international virtual debate ‘Whether governments should make COVID-19 vaccine mandatory’.
The event was held virtually with around 200 local QU and international attendees. The event started with an overview of the association’s vision, mission, and activities presented by the President of the IPE Student Association and QU third-year medical student Jawaher Baraka.
QU Vice President for Medical and Health Sciences and Dean of the College of Medicine (CMED) Dr. Egon Toft, welcomed the audience, participants, and judges. He praised the debates for its international growth. Dr. Toft commented that these debates are an example of positive outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Richard Pitt, CAIPE Chair, stated that CAIPE has been a global leader for over 30 years in promoting and developing IPE and improving quality in education, practice, and the organization and delivery of services. Through this collaborative work, CAIPE welcomed the opportunity to partner in this international student debate.
“At CAIPE, we were delighted to engage in this international interprofessional student debate on a very contentious subject. Both teams were very articulate in presenting their evidence-based arguments for or against the motion with enthusiasm,” Dr. Pitt said.
The debate was moderated by the former President of the IPE Student Association Sawsan AlMukdad. Members of Qatar’s affirmative side included QU Pharmacy student Ayesha Ahmed, QU Medical student Menatalla Said and the University of Calgary- Qatar- Nursing student Sharon Benjy.
Members of the UK’s negative team included King’s College London (KCL) Nursing student Alisha Khan, Medical student Konstantinos Lioulois, and London School of Economics student Sally Berry.
Each debater was given five minutes for their speech, a 2-minute caucus, and a cross-examination chance from the opposing team. After receiving the votes from both the judges and the audience, Qatar’s affirmative team won (70%).
As both sides comprise an interprofessional team, the debate contest opened an opportunity to observe various healthcare students’ perspectives. It allowed participants to increase their knowledge on the different issues concerning COVID-19 through reliable data and evidence-based research.
QU-CPH Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and QU Health Chair of Interprofessional Education program Dr. Alla El Awaisi thanked both teams and congratulated the Qatar team for the win.
“We are truly honoured to have had this great collaboration with CAIPE in the UK to allow healthcare students from both UK and Qatar to debate a very timely topic. We hope this activity was a great learning opportunity for healthcare students from both teams to learn and collaborate. Debate is a good opportunity to practice some of the essential competencies in interprofessional learning, including shared decision making, interprofessional communication, and respect,” Dr. El Awaisi said.
Menatalla Said from the affirmative Qatar team said: “It was an extraordinary experience from my end, filled with excitement and enthusiasm. It was a pleasure meeting healthcare students from the UK. The debate was informative and fruitful. I would personally say that it opened windows for me to look at what effect this house motion put on different countries could at different stages of the pandemic.
"I look forward to more of these debates to enhance our critical thinking and analysis as medical students as this will help us be more aware and skeptical in the future. And hope everyone enjoyed as much as I did”.
