Health Together 2002

Objectives: As students in all the health and human service disciplines enter their first year, it is important that they understand where they fit into the health care team. At "Health Together," an orientation for all first year health and human service students, the participants are given an opportunity to meet other students from the different health and human service disciplines. As they interact, the students form lines of communication between streams, and acquire a greater understanding of how the health care team works towards providing care for all patients. Throughout this event, students attend workshops, lectures, and go through team building exercises to gain a better understanding of the following concepts:

1. Health care collaboration, not a competition; which leads to the concept of…
2. Interprofessionalism; an idea brought forward by the Office of the Coordinator of the Health Sciences that promotes the interaction of all health care workers in an equal, collaborative system. And finally, that…
3. Health and Human Care is patient-centred, and that each field deserves the respect of their peers.

Rationale: There are two sides to the involvement that comes with attending "Health Together." Students can attend as participants or volunteer as Health Together Leaders (those responsible for jobs like organizing the event itself to sign up and registration, to group workshop leader etc). We believe that the participants will learn simple skills that are vital to the health care system and gain a greater understanding of what interprofessionalism is about. And they will learn these skills through fun visual stimulus, lectures, and hands on workshops in team building. As a volunteer, we believe that the students will also gain a greater of understanding of what it is to be apart of a team, and hopefully gain some important leadership, organizational and managerial skills as well.

John Gilbert, Office of the Coordinator of the Health Sciences, Health Sciences Students’ Association
Candy Ho, President, Health Science Students' Association
Adrian Tees, Internal Vice President, Health Science Students' Association
Omar Alasaly, External Vice President, Health Science Students' Association
Jen Chen, Director of Finance, Health Science Students' Association