Between July 26 – August 6, 2021, The Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University, had organized the online course “NSID225/226 Cultural Diversity in Health Care for Interprofessional Education, instructed in English, for Thai and international students as a virtual exchange program via Microsoft Teams. The course was organized as the IPE course for the first time. The instructor team consisted of 12 lecturers from Mahidol University (including 8 lecturers from Faculty of Nursing, 2 lecturers from Faculty of Medical Technology, and 2 from Faculty of Medicine, Prosthetics and Orthotics), and there was 1 lecturer from Universitas Indonesia.

The total number of students was 129 people consisting of 23 students from Mahidol University, the Faculty of Nursing (Thailand), 13 students from the Mahidol University, Faculty of Medical Technology (Thailand), 25 students from Mahidol University, Faculty of Medicine (Prosthetics and Orthotics), 20 students from Peking Union Medical College (China), 19 students from Universitas Indonesia (Indonesia), 5 students from St.Luke’s International University (Japan), 3 students from Kyushu University (Japan), 11 students from The University of Hong Kong (HKSAR), 10 students from Tzu Chi University (Taiwan ROC).

The objectives of the course were to provide knowledge and understanding of the concepts of transcultural health care and cultural competence and the concepts of Interprofessional healthcare practice; roles, duties, and responsibilities, communication, and teamwork. Students who enrolled in this course shall learn to work with people from different cultures and different fields of health care professions.

During the course, there were also international guest lecturers from St.Luke's International University, Peking Union Medical College, The University of Hong Kong, and Tzu Chi University joining to give information on the topics “Roles and Responsibilities of Interprofessional Healthcare Team for Teamwork”, and “Issues Related to Health Care for Culturally Diverse Clients”. Students gained fresh knowledge about a variety of cultural aspects from different countries and multidisciplinary more from the valuable lectures provided in this course. It was in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) that multidisciplinary faculties from Mahidol University jointly collaborated with leading educational institutions in foreign countries to create new knowledge for students which will be beneficial to their both personal and working development in the soon future.

This course was coordinated through the Center for International Collaboration and Networking of the Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University, with assistance from the Division of Information Technology to arrange study accounts and the online teaching system.