At Mandela University, a collaborative care model plays out in joint case discussions, school health screenings, mobile health truck outreach and even playground design projects with architecture students.
When a group of Nelson Mandela University architecture and health sciences students started designing a school playground, they weren’t thinking about swings and slides — they were designing a safe space so differently-abled children could play safely alongside their peers.
By the end of the project, the students had learnt the power of working across disciplines to solve real-world problems.
This hands-on collaboration is at the heart of Nelson Mandela University’s human movement sciences department, where learning to work together isn’t optional — it’s survival, says head of department Dr Aayesha Kholvadia.
In South Africa’s resource-stretched health system, professionals must communicate, coordinate and innovate across fields from day one, she said.
The department delivers health sciences education within a model that puts collaboration, rather than competition, at its core. Through Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP), students from different disciplines – from biokinetics to dietetics – learn to work with one another well before they enter the workplace.
“It’s important because real-world healthcare is never delivered in silos,” says Kholvadia. “Doctors, biokineticists,…
