From left to right: Vanessa Meneghetti, Christoph Hager, Jessica Yuen
On November 27, 2021, three 4th year UBC Kinesiology undergraduate students, Jessica Yuen, Christoph Hager and Vanessa Meneghetti competed at the 2021 CKA Virtual Kin Case Competition. Jessica states, “We had never participated in a case competition, and wanted to experience what it was like. We thought it was a good opportunity to apply what we’d learned from our Kinesiology courses and took it on as an extra-curricular activity.”
Competing teams from UBC, Queens, and McGill were assigned the same case study to create an intervention for a 67-year-old female patient with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), hypertension, diabetes and who had previously smoked. “Our goal was to provide her with an exercise and nutrition intervention that could help her get back to her previous level of functioning (long distance walks with her grandchildren, daily living activities such as walking up the stairs),” says Jessica.
Teams were given three days to analyze the unpublished case and create their presentation, using the skills, knowledge, and experience they acquired from their respective kinesiology curriculums. In order to do so, they needed to consult with at least one researcher and one practicing Kinesiologist. The UBC KIN team felt very lucky to have Professor Bill Sheel serve as their mentor for the case competition. “He was very supportive throughout the whole process, and was always ready to help despite his busy schedule,” reflects Jessica. The team was also grateful to KIN grad students Mick Leahy and Calum Butterworth for their invaluable help.
Mick was their researcher, explains Jessica, “he looked over our presentation and suggested different methods to approach pulmonary rehabilitation and subjective and objective ways to track the patient’s exercising state, while Calum was involved in the exercise prescription planning and helped with cardio and strength training for the patient.”
On the day of the competition, they had 5 minutes to present their case study to a judging panel on Zoom, which was followed by a Q&A session. Due to their outstanding presentation, the team placed second and received a $150 bursary.
When asked what they have learned from participating in the competition, the team members stated that it “provided an excellent opportunity to learn about time management and team dynamics. We learned how to apply principles learned in class to design an exercise and nutrition intervention for a patient with medical comorbidities. Open communication between the team members was crucial to deal with the challenges of the case. We highly recommend that other UBCKin students participate in the competition next year. It is a great experience because it gives you a chance to expand your kinesiology knowledge and apply it to a real case scenario. Having our team mentor, researcher, and kinesiologist present during this process was incredibly beneficial for completing the case, and it gave us insight into certain clinical aspects of their careers.”
Watch their presentation: