Qatar University Health cluster (QU-Health) recently organised a series of virtual workshops on 'The Practice Educators’ Academy' over three days to develop preceptors’ educational knowledge and skills required for their roles as clinical educators.

QU Health provides closer alignment and integration between the health entities at QU - College of Health Sciences (CHS), Colleges of Pharmacy (CPH), College of Medicine (CMED), and College of Dental Medicine - into a theme-based academic unit.

The virtual workshop were in collaboration with the Office of Engagement and Communication in the Department of Medical and Health Sciences, in addition to the Department of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and the Department of Information Technology.

The agenda included principles of learning theories, planning for experiential learning, teaching strategies, students’ assessment and feedback, and communication skills for effective preceptorship and conflict resolution.

The objective is to build a critical mass of health care professional educators, who would then teach and prepare competent health profession students/graduates to advance healthcare outcomes and meet the healthcare needs of Qatar society, and ultimately achieve Qatar National Health Strategy 2018-2022 and Qatar National Vision 2030.

The workshops were intended for pharmacists, physicians and allied health practitioners who serve as clinical educators/preceptors at QU-Health Cluster colleges. More than 60 attended.

Hamad Medical Corporation's (HMC) deputy chief medical officer and director of Medical Education Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, QU Health Cluster vice president and Medical College dean Prof Egon Toft and Health Sciences College dean Dr Hanan Abdul Rahim were present during the opening session.

Principles of teaching and learning, was presented by Prof. Marwan Abu-Hijleh (professor of anatomy, head of Basic Medical Science, CMED), and Dr Banan Mukhalalati (assistant professor in the Clinical Pharmacy and Practice section, CPH)

Planning for experiential learning, was presented by Prof. Hiba Bawadi (head of Clinical Training, CHS) and teaching and instruction strategies by Dr. Ahmed Awaisu (associate professor and department head, Clinical Pharmacy and Practice, CPH) and Dr Kristen al-Amri (acting associate director, Medical Education, HMC).

The module on students assessment and feedback was presented by Dr Ghadir al-Jayyousi (lecturer, clinical training co-ordinator, CHS) and communication skills for effective preceptorship and conflict resolution by Dr Bridget Javed (clinical associate professor and director, Doctor of Pharmacy Programme, CPH).

Dr al-Khal described the initiative as innovative and the first of its kind in the country and probably in the region with regard to medical education.

"As clinical teachers you play a very important role in the training and the education of our health professional students. You act as teachers, as educators and mentors. You also set the role models for the students who will be our future doctors, pharmacists, dieticians, and health professionals in other areas," he told the participants.

Dr Toft pointed out that there is an increasing collaboration between the healthcare system in the country and QU on developing a healthcare professional educational system.

"For this reason, we have started the QU Health in which we are trying, according to the new strategy, to have the best possible graduates for the health care system of the country. For that purpose, it is important that we have the best possible teachers, and it is important to develop them continuously every year from now on," he said.

Dr Mukhalalati explained that clinical preceptors are indispensable in the experiential training of health professional students. "However, the vast majority of preceptors do not possess formal training as educators. This is what brings us to conduct a research project of two stages, which is granted from university internal grant.

"In the first stage the educational needs of preceptors has been assessed and were considered as milestone of building the programme syllabus by health education experts. The process also involved benchmarking the learning objectives with similar international programmes and ultimately led to validating the syllabus by national and international scholars who are expert in the field.

"In the second stage, and after developing the content of the programme into five modules, we are pilot evaluating this workshop in order to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of this educational training programme, before its full implementation.”

Dr Zachariah Nazar, an assistant professor in the Clinical Pharmacy and Practice Section, CPH, and the QU-Health CPD co-ordinator reiterated that the role preceptors play in the development of students is really critical in their preparedness to become healthcare professionals.

"The Practice Educators’ Academy” workshop is an accredited group learning activity (Category 1) as defined by the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners-Accreditation Department and approved for a maximum number of 11.5 hours. This academy is part of a study that is funded by the QU National Capacity Building Research Grant and conducted by the lead principal investigator Dr Mukhalalati, and the workshop faculty members’ team.



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