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Gallery, Indigenous Stories

New residency stream trains doctors in Eabametoong First Nation

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The Northern Ontario School of Medicine , Matawa First Nations Management and Eabametoong First Nation signed an agreement in 2016 to create a new Remote First Nations Family Medicine Residency stream.

The new stream allows medical school graduates to complete their Family Medicine residency in a remote First Nation community in Northern Ontario. It also includes a return of service commitment to serve in Eabametoong or another Matawa community for four years following the completion of the residency. The residency stream began as a pilot in December 2016 with the selection of the first resident, Dr. Deepak Murthy who began in July 2017. Two more residents are starting this July.

The application process for prospective residents is one hallmark of community direction to this new stream. Candidates participate in two rounds of interviews: the first with a selection panel that includes family medicine faculty and a resident representative from NOSM, as well as members of the First Nation community, to ensure the candidates meet the benchmark requirements for a family medicine resident in Canada; and a second with a selection panel that is made up almost entirely of Eabametoong community members.

Dr. Claudette Chase, Site Director for the Remote First Nation Family Medicine Residency stream, is present during the second interview, but does not have a say in the final decision about which resident will be accepted into the stream.

“Our goal for this residency stream is to produce culturally competent residents who can deliver culturally safe care in a First Nations community,” says Dr. Chase. “The partnership is not in name only. Power is actually being shared, and that is different from most other things I’ve ever been involved in.”

Molly Boyce, Family Medicine Community Residency Liaison Coordinator in Eabametoong First Nation, says she is excited about the community’s involvement in both the selection process and the curriculum design.

“With this new program, we make that choice on who we’re going to allow to come into the community and who’s allowed to assist us in our health care,” she says. “Our traditional medicines and way of life were put down for so many years, and it’s so exciting that there is recognition that there is a need for our traditional medicine, and the choice that this presents for us now as Native people.”

Murthy came to Canada approximately five years ago. He says he has worked in rural and remote areas in India, and was drawn to the idea of working in a similar environment in Canada.

“It’s a totally different culture, and I’ve enjoyed my time in Eabametoong so far,” he says. “I believe with acceptance from the community earned through my training program and offering culturally safe care, I will quite like living and practising there.”

Medical graduates accepted into the Remote First Nations Family Medicine Residency stream undergo additional training in order to meet the needs of the communities, says Dr. Chase. Dr. Murthy has done obstetrics training, as well as a plastic surgery repairs rotation, and will spend extra time on urgent care skills in order to be prepared to practice independently in geographic isolation. Additional curriculum on cultural safety and trauma informed care is also provided.

During their week-long visits, the residents will also have a half day devoted to community engagement and cultural teachings. As the Community Residency Liaison Coordinator, Boyce is responsible for organizing this part of the program, including arranging meetings with Elders and taking the residents out on the land.

“The program provides a unique opportunity to train physicians in a non-institutional setting where collaborative medicine is a necessity with a limited team of allied health professionals and where mental health, addiction, culture, community and history all intersect,” says Paul Capon, a Policy Analyst with Matawa First Nations Management. “We look forward to its development and expansion.”

Boyce says she hopes the residents who enter the program can manage the challenges of living and working in the community.

“Some people in the community are excited about the program, but some are really not sure yet,” she says. “We open our hearts and we open our minds, and we allow people to come here, so we hope that the residents feel that, and embrace their training and life here.”

Read more stories like this in the latest issue of Northern Passages.

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Building A Community of Practice: NOSM Hosts First Pan-Northern Physician Leadership Forum

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In February 2018, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine hosted Northern Lights, Northern Ontario’s first PanNorthern Physician Leadership Forum. Northern Lights was the result of collaborations involving NOSM, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), and the Associated Medical Services (AMS) Phoenix Fellowship Program, all of which share a commitment to physician leadership development. “Developing leaders focuses on individuals, but leadership development is when we develop models of leadership within organizations,” says Dr. James Goertzen, Assistant Dean of Continuing Education and Professional Development at NOSM and AMS Phoenix Fellow. “With Northern Lights, we are shifting towards leadership development in Northern Ontario.”

The transition from leader development to leadership development requires a shift in the culture of collaboration and engagement within and between organizations, according to Dr. Goertzen. The goal of Northern Lights was to create a model of leadership development that specifically addressed the unique needs of physicians and health-care organizations in Northern Ontario. “A lot of what we do in Ontario in terms of health care is pretty Toronto-centric, including leadership development, so we were looking at how we can take the existing models and make them work for Northern Ontario,” he says. “One of our biggest considerations in the North is geography, so bringing people together via a pan-northern physician leadership forum was a way in which we could address the isolation many physician leaders face due to the geographical challenges of living and practicing in Northern Ontario.”

When organizing the forum, Dr. Goertzen says there was also a specific focus on ensuring those attending represented a cross section of communities, genders, career levels, as well as various hospitals and health-care organizations in Northern Ontario. Northern Lights included 37 residents, new graduates, physicians in their early careers and experienced physician leaders from communities across the North, including Kenora, Dryden, Thunder Bay, Marathon, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay, Parry Sound and Manitoulin Island. It also included representatives from a range of health-care organizations including NOSM, the Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association, the Physician Clinical Teachers’ Association, OMA, Local Education Groups and Northern Ontario academic health sciences centres and teaching hospitals.

The rare opportunity to network and make face-to-face connections with other Northern Ontario physician leaders was the highlight of the event for many in attendance, according to Dr. Goertzen. “Building collaborations is crucial to leadership development, and part of that is bringing people together and giving them the opportunity to develop relationships,” he says. “At Northern Lights, physicians at different phases of their leadership journeys were able to share perspectives, learn from each other, and start a dialogue for the development of a supportive community of Northern Ontario Physician leaders.”

During the two-and-a-half-day event, participants completed the Physician Leadership Institute Course titled Engaging Others. The forum also featured guided discussions exploring strategies to support mutual engagement with guests from OMA, the Ontario Hospital Association and Health Quality Ontario, as well as the relationships between physician engagement, resilience, and burnout along with strategies to promote physician wellness. Planning for Northern Lights 2019 is already underway, says Dr. Goertzen, with the continued focus on creating a system-wide, collaborative network of physician leaders in health-care settings and organizations across the North. “The ultimate goal is to develop a community of practice of Northern Ontario physician leaders,” he says. “As we have a mandate to improve the health of people living in the North, we need to be using leadership development to assist us, and that means looking at a model of leadership development that’s more collaborative and more responsive to the needs of people in our care.”

 

Read more stories like this in the latest issue of Northern Passages.

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NODIP Celebrates 11th Graduation

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Congratulations to our newest class of Registered Dietitians!

On Thursday, July 26, 12 learners from NOSM’s Northern Ontario Dietetic Internship Program (NODIP) celebrated their graduation. The ceremony was held in two locations: the Northern Ontario School of Medicine at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and NOSM at Laurentian University in Sudbury. The Northern Ontario Dietetic Internship Program is a unique internship designed to give learners a wide variety of opportunities. NODIP offers experience in different types of practice settings including large and small hospitals, public health units, Family Health Teams, and community health centres. Placements take place in rural, Indigenous, and Francophone communities.

With the celebration of these 12 graduates, a total of 135 interns have successfully completed their dietetic internship with NOSM. Of the more than 280 NODIP preceptors, 50 are graduates of the internship program and 23 are NOSM faculty. NODIP was the first post-degree internship of all Canadian dietetic education programs to be assessed using the new Partnership for Dietetic Education and Practice Accreditation Standards under which NODIP received full accreditation until 2022.

Congratulations, graduates!

NOSM University