Social Work, Pharmacy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech and Language Therapy (SPOTS) Collaboration 2021

SPOTS 2021 was an online full-day workshop conducted on 13 December 2021 involving students from Pharmacy and Social Work at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT).

Fig 1: Group 4, facilitated by Megan Soon (SIT Speech and Language Therapy) and Lam Weng Chung (NUS Pharmacy).

The purpose of the event was to bring together students from these different courses to learn more about each other’s professions and allow them to forge professional relationships to facilitate interprofessional and multi-disciplinary collaborative practice in future. This is also one of the few events which brings together students from both SIT and NUS, fostering cross-institutional relations as well.

The event kick-started with icebreakers and introductions within each group comprising of participants from all 4 courses, to allow them to get to know each other and their facilitators. The facilitators included committee members from the NUS Pharmaceutical Society Interprofessional Education Committee (NUSPS IPE), the SIT Occupational Therapy Student Management Committee (OT SMC) and the Society of Social Work Students (SSWS). The number of participants from the different courses was approximately 2:1 for Pharmacy and Social Work students to Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy Students. About 50 to 55 students attended and participated actively for the full 6 hours of the event.

Fig 2: Group 3, facilitated by Zidane Seow (SIT Occupational Therapy) and Julian Tan (NUS Pharmacy).

To set the stage, a case scenario surrounding an elderly female stroke patient, specially authored by Dr Wong Pei Shieen and Assoc Prof Doreen Tan (Dept of Pharmacy), was shared by facilitators to the teams in breakout rooms. Following this, participants attended the first of two mass sharing sessions by Pharmacy and Speech and Language Therapy students, where everyone learnt more about the roles of the different healthcare professionals. The sharing sessions were organized in a way to educate our participants on how to better utilize the expertise of pharmacists and allied healthcare professionals in holistic patient care, through showcasing the roles of each professional in the healthcare setting. For example, pharmacists’ role in identifying common adverse drug reactions and medication non-adherence was covered. We also described how allied healthcare professionals can watch out for such signs in their own patients. During the sharing and activity organized by Speech and Language Therapy, participants learnt about laryngeal palpations and how patients with dysphagia can be assisted. The Social Work students shared about their role in helping to look after the holistic welfare of patients, and briefly went through the principles underpinning the construction of eco-maps and genograms, which can be used to help enhance the social aspect of patients’ lives. The session ended on a high note with Occupational Therapy students sharing about therapy and lifestyle modifications which can be suggested and implemented for patients experiencing right hemiplegia, to improve patients’ daily lives.

Fig 3: Group 5, facilitated by Teng Zhi Qian (NUS Pharmacy) and Daniel Wong (NUS Social Work).

Following the mass sharing sessions, participants were split into breakout rooms comprising a mixture of students from various courses. Students then had to work together to complete the hands-on activities assigned to them, which were all based on the case study introduced earlier. The activities varied between courses, with the pharmacy activity involving preparing a Pharmaceutical Care Plan, while the Social Work Activity involved drawing up Genograms for the patient. Following each activity was a debrief where the course leading the activity summed up the learning points and takeaways from the sharing and activity.

Overall, student engagement was excellent, with the majority of students being able to answer the Kahoot quizzes organized by Social Work and Pharmacy correctly. Students were also active in asking questions to learn more about each other’s professions, and many students proactively shared their own knowledge and experiences within the breakout rooms.

My team and I had a blast organizing this event, and we feel that SPOTS is pivotal to the strengthening of personal and professional ties between future pharmacists and allied health professionals.

Article by Santhosh Dave Kalaimaran (Class of ‘24) and Tan Hua Swen (Class of ‘24)

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