Deepening learning about interprofessional collaboration through first-ever hands-on exercise ~ Second-year students from our university discuss disaster medical care across departmental boundaries ~

On February 13, 2025, our university's first-ever experiential multi-disciplinary collaboration exercise was held jointly by four faculties for second-year students, with the cooperation of the Department Department of Emergency Disaster and Critical Care Medicine, and Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and was organized by the Clinical Education Center of our university. The 164 students who participated were divided into 28 teams across faculties and deepened their understanding of multi-disciplinary collaboration through experiential exercises and team discussions. In the exercise, each team was given the opportunity to experience issues in disaster medical care, such as beds, toilets, and oral care at evacuation shelters, by brushing their teeth and assembling cardboard beds and sleeping on them under the guidance of an instructor, and discovered their own problems and issues. In the team discussions, the students actively discussed themes such as "issues that evacuees have in evacuation shelters" and "problems that arise when oral care cannot be provided adequately," and were able to deeply consider issues in disaster medical care and even consider responses and countermeasures. After the exercise, students commented that they "became aware of multi-disciplinary collaboration" and "I think that the actual experience will definitely be useful in the future," making it a very fulfilling exercise.