Health experts prepare for finals crunch-time

It’s finals time across Australia’s major sporting codes – and it’s no different for academics as The University of Queensland prepares to defend a treasured crown.

Health at UQ is home to the reigning champions of the Australian HealthFusion Team Challenge, an event requiring a team of students to produce a gold-standard care program for a client with complex needs.

A mentor of last year’s victorious squad, Dr Emma Beckman from the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, will again supervise the UQ team (Social Work’s Joanna Standen, Occupational Therapy’s Michael Honnery, Physiotherapy’s Nicole Atkinson, Speech Pathology’s Elizabeth Coomer, Medicine’s Mariam Rizk, and Pharmacy’s Brittany Martin) in the Australian finals in Brisbane on Thursday 17 September.

“We have brought together six talented fourth-year students from a variety of disciplines who must work together as a team,” Dr Beckman said.

“The event highlights the next generation of health care leaders in Australia, allowing them to demonstrate their talent.

“Aside from friendly inter-university competitiveness, it’s a great way for entrants to boost their CV and begin making a name for themselves as innovators in their field.”Each university has been given roughly a month to come up with a management plan for a hypothetical patient, purposely designed to test the knowledge and collaborative abilities of each team.

Teams present their plans during heats in front of a live audience and panel of judges under strictly timed conditions.

A range of challenge extensions are then presented, to which each team must respond, and the three highest scoring progress to the final.

UQ’s squad is looking for healthy ‘away’ support at the venue, traditional rivals Queensland University of Technology.

You can reserve your place in the audience by booking a free ticket online.

Media: UQ Communications Robert Burgin, r.burgin@uq.edu.au, +617 3346 3035, +61 0448 410 364.