Better Together — The Power of Interprofessional Learning

Ask any rural healthcare provider about working in a small or remote community, and you will hear a common theme: you figure things out together. Physicians, nurses, and paramedics in rural BC routinely rely on one another across professional boundaries — not because anyone planned it that way, but because the situation demands it. The RM-RC course in Fernie took that everyday reality and built an entire learning program around it.

Learning in each other's shoes

From Day 1, the course deliberately brought together family physicians, specialists, registered nurses, and paramedics in the same room, working through the same scenarios, using the same equipment, faculty and participants. There were no siloed streams, no separate nursing tracks or physician tracks. Everyone learned and worked together.

"I didn't realise there is a group of passionate people working to improve retrieval and transfers for rural communities. It will only be through collaboration — RN, paramedic, MD, fire — that we can improve care locally and at a system level." — Family Physician

For many participants, the experience of being taught by a paramedic, learning airway skills alongside a nurse, or running a trauma scenario with a physician was genuinely new. Not because interprofessional care is a novel idea — but because structured opportunities to practice it together can be hard to come by in BC’s rural settings.

"I have always known the importance of interdisciplinary teams, but it almost feels siloed where I work. I am definitely eager to start developing those relationships and break down walls." — Registered Nurse, 3 years' experience

The instructors modelled what they taught

The diversity of the faculty was itself a teaching tool. Instructors came from emergency medicine, retrieval medicine, rural family practice, critical care nursing, and prehospital care. Participants consistently noted how much they gained simply from hearing different professional perspectives on the same clinical scenario.

"High value from getting paramedic perspectives: use what you have, safety of self first, military perspectives, risk management on scene." — Registered Nurse

"They were all amazing! The multidisciplinary [instructing] team was so helpful as it brought so many different considerations and perspectives." — Registered Nurse

The Mass Casualty Incident day — when the whole team showed up

The final day of the program took interprofessional collaboration to a new level. A Mass Casualty Incident scenario brought participants together with members of the local fire department for a joint exercise that replicated — as closely as possible — the real conditions of a major incident response. Healthcare providers worked side by side with firefighters on vehicle extrication, triage, and coordinated patient management.

"Best part — joining in with the Fire Dept on last day. Epic!" — Family Physician

"Excellent day. Fire [fighter] involvement is perfect." — Family Physician

The experience left a strong impression. Participants described gaining, for the first time, a visceral sense of what their prehospital colleagues face: the physical demands of extrication, the emotional intensity of high-acuity incident command, the value of pre-planned team roles when chaos arrives.

"Consider how hard and intense the extrication is, or how emotional the process was of getting the patient to hospital." — Nurse

"Better understanding of what our paramedics experience." — Nurse

From a training course to an everyday reality

The interprofessional collaboration that participants experienced in Fernie is not a teaching method that requires a five-day course to achieve. It is exactly how prehospital and retrieval care is delivered at its best — physicians, nurses, paramedics, and first responders working together, each contributing their expertise, each understanding what the others need.

In BC, that model remains a vision for the future, not the reality of current practice. Currently, nurses, doctors, and paramedics operate in separate systems with limited cross-training, shared protocols, and opportunities to contribute their expertise to care where they can be impactful across the patient’s journey. The result is lost opportunities and benefits for both patients and providers.

MRBC's model is built around closing that gap. The RM-RC course is one demonstration of what becomes possible when clinicians train and work together across professional lines — not just to understand each other's roles, but to trust each other. The goal is a BC where that kind of integrated, interprofessional care is not a special occasion, but the standard of practice.

"This course has reinforced my belief that a system is needed to align what we have. In an underserved community, we as healthcare can work better together to create a system to support sites and transport that the current system cannot do. I feel heard and seen — not alone in this desire." — Registered Nurse, 18 years' experience