Pharmacy student’s recommendations presented to WHO

This year’s U21 Interprofessional Education (IPE) Student Challenge was hosted by Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. The challenge centred on ‘Prevention, Wellbeing, and Longevity in a Post-Covid World’ and asked students from U21 universities to present evidence-based recommendations that could assist the WHO to prepare for future viral pandemics.

Students worked in one of seven cross-disciplinary groups to formulate five recommendations and present their findings in a five-minute video. The winning team had Daniel Young, one of the four University of Auckland students who took part in this challenge.

Daniel, a third-year pharmacy student, is passionate about guiding people to lead healthier lives. His main drive for participating in the IPE challenge was to understand why individuals refuse the Covid-19 vaccination and what can be done to support the uptake of vaccines within his community. Working in a community pharmacy, Daniel is no stranger to witnessing vaccine hesitancy, often being asked whether the vaccine causes infertility or lead to heart attacks.

“Being able to understand the reasons behind vaccination hesitancy and supporting individuals with the right information to help them make their decisions is something I believe helps reinforce trust in the healthcare system," says Daniel.

“When it came to identifying issues with vaccination, we chose to look at it from multiple perspectives. What I mean by this is that we didn’t just focus on individuals who are vaccine hesitant. We also thought about those individuals who are unable to access the vaccine, and individuals who have a lack of trust in the healthcare system.”

Despite the challenges often arising out of working virtually, the team created the winning project within two weeks. “I found collaborating with other students in other universities and specialisations really fun and really rewarding. I would say that the secret to our group winning the competition was the fact that we were able to utilize all of our individual skills and experiences in making our recommendations.”

The presentation highlighted factors conducive to vaccine distribution and provided recommendations on how to combat these. While some of these factors were tangible, such as access to vaccine facilities in rural areas and the short shelf-life of the vaccines, the group also pointed out intangible barriers that prevent vaccination uptake.

“One very prevalent issue, that I believe we can all agree on, is there is just too much misinformation online that can drive people away from the vaccine, Daniel explains. Especially being in lockdown and spending more time on social media. It’s easy to become misguided by misinformation. This is why we formed recommendations on the promotion of verified information and trusted sources of information on social media.”

Daniel recognises he may not have considered the different perspectives if working on the project alone. He also hopes to use his experience and apply it, when he works within a multidisciplinary team in the future.

“Especially in healthcare where there is never just one professional taking care of a patient’s health. I believe that being able to get along with other specialities is really key to making people’s lives better,” he says.

The University of Auckland will host the next U21 Health Sciences Group Meeting in 2022.