Introduction to the HealthFusion Team Challenge (HFTC)

Optimal outcomes for the many and increasing number of people with complex and chronic health concerns greatly depends on effective teamwork and collaboration between healthcare professionals with diverse skillsets and knowledges. The HealthFusion, aims to develop this important capability prior to the student’s graduation in a way that is transformative, authentic, and fun.

The IAHA HFTC is an extracurricular competition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students from various health professions. It provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate their expertise in teamwork and collaboration as they develop a management plan in response to a complex case study.

Background

Pioneered by academics from the University of British Columbia over 25 years ago, the Health Care Team Challenge was brought to Australia and developed by an interprofessional team of Queensland academics under the name of HealthFusion. The University of Queensland was the first university in Australia to host a Health Care Team Challenge with its pilot event in 2007.

In 2013, the HealthFusion Project Team moved to its new premises at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Gardens Point Campus in Brisbane, Australia, where they are currently based.

Visit www.healthfusionteamchallenge.com for further details on the HealthFusion Project.

The HFTC Process

At the beginning of the event, participants are allocated into interprofessional teams and given a copy of the same complex clinical case study. However, each team may be given a different community in which the case study is based.

IAHA will introduce to the HFTC event an opportunity to challenge the students culturally and contextually as they learn to appreciate the differences in working in a variety of settings, including the various complexity’s that come with living and working in different States, Territories and Regions. Teams will be given a case study that will be either based in Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia or the Northern Territory.

Teams will work together over the course of the weekend, with the assistance of mentors (including profession and cultural mentors), to prepare a patient care and recovery plan based on the case study. Teams will each have SEVEN MINUTES to present their plan.

Teams present their plans live for the judging panel and audience in the Heats.

The top two teams – as determined by the judges – will then go on to the Final Showdown.

At the conclusion of the Final Showdown, a number of prizes will be announced, including the Winners, Runners Up and four Individual Leadership awards.