The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is turning 10 this year!

To celebrate a decade of working together for a healthier North, NOSM invites all Northern Ontarians to Be Active with NOSM on September 23 by participating in 30 minutes of physical activity. Get together with your colleagues, friends, neighbours, and family to run, walk, skip, canoe-anything, as long as you’re physically active!

One of the many things that NOSM-trained health professionals learn during their training is the importance of preventative medicine. According to Ontario physician Dr. Mike Evans in his presentation 23 ½ Hours, one of the best preventative measures we can take to protect our health is to engage in 30 minutes of physical activity each and every day. Join NOSM on September 23 as part of your daily commitment to exercise to help celebrate a healthier Northern Ontario!

To learn more about what NOSM has been up to over the last ten years, kindly view the attached Fact Sheet.

Tweet us!
Tweet photos of your physical activity to @thenosm with #beactivewithNOSM, or email them to communications@nosm.ca for a chance to win healthy prizes! We also invite you to wish NOSM a happy anniversary by using #nosmturns10.

Learn more and register for free at nosm.ca/beactivewithnosm.

Be Active with NOSM

Who
Everyone is invited to participate! We encourage you to get your friends, family, colleagues, and neighbours involved.

What
Any physical activity for 30 minutes. Walk, run, skip, bike, go to the gym, play team sports, ride horses, anything! We also recommend taking advantage of the many activities available to us is Northern Ontario, including swimming, water skiing, canoeing, kayaking, paddle boarding, beach volleyball, hiking, and more!

When
NOSM officially kicks off its Be Active with NOSM Campaign on Wednesday, September 23 at 10:00 a.m., but we invite you to be active at any time that is convenient for your schedule that day. We also invite you to make exercise a daily habit now and into the future!

Where
Across Northern Ontario! We invite you to be active on your own or with a group wherever you are, or join a group at any of the following locations:

Sudbury

Laurentian University
935 Ramsey Lake Road
Sudbury, ON
Athletic Field

Thunder Bay

Lakehead University

983 Oliver Road
Thunder Bay, ON
The Hangar

Communities across the North
Visit nosm.ca/beactivewithnosm to see if there are events near you.

Cost
Free!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Yesterday officially marked the first day of classes for 64 new medical students at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), following a week of travel to learn about the geographic, social, cultural, and linguistic diversity of Northern Ontario.

Orientation Week-or O-Week, as it is affectionately referred to at NOSM-is about so much more than helping students find their classes. NOSM’s newest group of students spend the week becoming immersed in the cultural, linguistic, and geographic diversity of the North. This is their introduction to NOSM’s wider campus of Northern Ontario, where they will live and learn for the next four years.

On Tuesday, August 25, NOSM students came together in Sudbury and travelled by bus to Nipissing First Nation. Warmly welcomed by a song from the Little Iron Drum Group, the students broke bread with community members, received an Elder teaching on smudging, and heard advice and encouragement on behalf of the Chief and Council at Nipissing First Nation. Finally, Dr. Brenda Restoule, NOSM faculty member, Aboriginal woman, and psychologist in the area shared information with the students about frameworks developed for First Nations’ Wellness.

On Wednesday, August 26, the MD students toured the Temiskaming Hospital, Haileybury Family Health Team, and the Centre de santé communautaire du Témiskaming. There, the students spoke with NOSM faculty and graduates working in the area about the realities and benefits of practising rural medicine with both French and English patients.

“I was a dietitian for 10 years before I applied to NOSM,” said Dr. Nichole Currie, NOSM graduate and faculty member during the tour of the Haileybury Family Health Team where she now works. “I did the third year of my MD in Temiskaming Shores and absolutely loved it. I love living in a small, rural setting, and I knew that I wanted to do family medicine with obstetrics. It was important for me to raise my family in a small town, but I love that it’s progressive, too.”

Finally, the students returned to Sudbury by bus for the NOSM Oath Ceremony. This ceremony introduces students to the obligations and high standards of their newly chosen profession. The NOSM Oath Ceremony familiarizes students with the Physician’s Oath (the modern version of the famous Hippocratic Oath), its meaning and importance, and begins their four years of medical education with the principles of the Oath in mind.

NOSM continues to meet its social accountability mandate, innovative education and research for a healthier North.  Admission to NOSM’s MD program is highly competitive, and members of this incoming class have been selected from over 2000 applicants with a class mean GPA of 3.83 (measured on a 4-point scale). Demographic characteristics of this class include:

• 89% are from Northern Ontario
• Remaining 11% are from rural and remote parts of the rest of Canada
• 8% are self-identified Aboriginal
• 20% are self-identified Francophone

Students will now get down to work and immerse themselves in all things NOSM-state-of-the-art smart classrooms and learning technologies, an integrated, collaborative approach to education, and distributed, community-based placements across Northern Ontario. Each of these elements helps to ensure that NOSM produces high-quality physicians with an appreciation for the unique health-care needs of Northern Ontario.

 

From August 18 – 20, 2015, the Aboriginal Affairs Unit of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) held a historic Elder’s gathering on the traditional lands of Fort William First Nation. The gathering brought together Aboriginal Elders from First Nations and Métis communities across NOSM’s wider campus of Northern Ontario to discuss the future of the School’s Council of Elders.

Over the past ten years, the School has developed relationships with more than 20 Elders who each have special gifts for working with community members. NOSM’s Council of Elders is comprised of these Aboriginal peoples who possess gifts and significant knowledge of traditional, cultural, and spiritual customs and practices. Each of these gifts, separately or together, is related to maintaining the holistic health of a community. Their knowledge is gained through a full life of learning, experiences, and teachings received from other Elders and traditional people.

Tina Armstrong, NOSM’s Director of Aboriginal Affairs, recognized the need to restructure the Council of Elders, reduce the number of Elders formally engaged with the School, and develop a more formal process for determining which Elders would work with NOSM learners, staff, and faculty. “Rather than forming a corporate style working group, we decided it was best to bring the question on how to restructure the Council of Elders to the Elders themselves,” explains Armstrong. “We knew we needed to make a change, so we chose the traditional way. We embraced our culture and took the question of how to change the Council of Elders to the spirits for guidance through ceremony.”

The three-day gathering began with a traditional feast and a sacred Turtle Lodge Ceremony atop scenic Mt. McKay. The following two days brought the Elders together for facilitated discussions about the purpose, function, and responsibility of NOSM Elders and those on the Elder’s Council. Through sharing and discussion, it was decided that the Elder’s Council shall be guided in their work by the Seven Grandfather teachings: Nibwaakaawin (wisdom); Zaagi’idiwin (love); Minaadendamowin (respect); Aakode’ewin (bravery); Gwayakwaadiziwin (honesty); Dabaadendiziwin (humility); and, Debwewin (truth).

Going forward, the Council of Elders will be comprised of eight Elders, with four female and four male representatives. Each Elder shall represent one of the cardinal directions of the medicine wheel to ensure the spiritual, cultural, political, and territory of each region is represented. There was much discussion surrounding the gifts that NOSM Elders would each possess, including traditional languages and culture.

“This is a historic first for the Northern Ontario School of Medicine,” says Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean. “The School has actively chosen to engage Elders in decisions over the past ten years. Elders play an extremely important role in the School and provide links to many Aboriginal communities across the North. We are so pleased the Elders chose to attend the Turtle Lodge Ceremony and grateful their guidance in determining the future direction of the School.”

NOSM Elders provide support to NOSM’s Aboriginal learners; provide cultural teachings to students, staff, and faculty; offer traditional ceremonies and blessings; ensure Aboriginal medical students are recruited to the School; review applications for Aboriginal applicants to the School; participate in quarterly meetings of the School’s Aboriginal Reference Group meetings; assist with developing and approve Aboriginal content in NOSM’s curriculum; and, work with the School to ensure connections are maintained with First Nations and Métis communities across the North.

The sense of direction given by the Council of Elders is fitting as this is a time of change at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Over the next month, the School will celebrate its tenth anniversary and will be launching NOSM’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020: Reaching Beyond Extraordinary Together-which many of the Elders were involved with developing.