Bienvenue dans le nouveau site Web de l’EMNO. Même si nous sommes en train de créer un site complètement bilingue, veuillez noter que seulement certaines pages existent en français en ce moment.
Kira completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba in Human Nutritional Sciences in 2008. During undergrad, Kira was hired with the NOSM Summer Studentship program at Thunder Bay District Health Unit and again at St. Joseph’s Care Group. In 2008/09, she completed the NODIP at the Thunder Bay site. Kira was the recipient of the Canadian Foundation of Dietetic Research National Morgan Medal for her practice-based research project on the Recruitment and Retention of Dietitians in Northern Ontario. Following graduation, Kira worked at the Atikokan Family Health Team for four years and has since been working at Diabetes Health in Thunder Bay. It was through NODIP that Kira gained an interest in diabetes education, during placements in Thunder Bay and Dryden.
Kira’s drive for continuous learning is evident in many ways; not only is she Faculty with NOSM University and a regular preceptor for NODIP, but she is currently completing her Masters of Health Studies with Athabasca University, with a focus on teaching and research. One of Kira’s most recent ambitions included introducing the Rx Food tool at Diabetes Health. She took the initiative to trial Rx Food with a small group of clients and is hopeful the tool will be a useful resource to relieve the stress of carbohydrate counting. Kira is continuously seeking new learning opportunities and is excited about new diabetes technologies allowing more food flexibility for those living with Type 1 diabetes.
Rarely are we given a window into our own impact on the lives of others. Recently, someone reached out to me on social media, and gave me perhaps the best gift I have ever received. This person is a former patient from my time as a practising family physician in Kingston, Ontario. Although I have not been in practice there since 2005, she wanted to say hello, and to let me know that my decade-long involvement in her care, starting when she was a teenager, had “saved her Ife” and “inspired” her to go to medical school.
What a moment.
I am an immensely proud family doctor! The joy, the challenges, the wonder, and the privilege to be in people’s lives are just part of what makes this specialty so incredibly special. For the 25-plus years that I was in practice—much of the first decade as a comprehensive family doctor doing everything from prenatal to palliative care—I loved it. I was a late bloomer in medicine, having come to it as an adult learner. I originally considered being a surgeon, and then a forensic pathologist (which would have combined my careers in law and medicine), but I ended up as a family physician. I was attracted to the versatility, fun, and astounding complexity of being a health-care detective. After all, family doctors are the ones who make the diagnosis.
In fact, family medicine is the heart and soul of medicine. It is the gate through which patients access specialised care and it is the specialty that provides continuity. Family medicine is about relationships and caring for entire families across multiple generations. Family doctors are part of a community. They have the privilege of being part of patients’ entire life cycles. Family medicine is inspiring, impactful, and indeed never, ever boring.
Family medicine in Canada has been perceived as being in crisis for a number of years. In fact, the fears that fewer students are choosing family medicine as a career have been abundant lately. According to the Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS), in 2022, only 30.7% of graduating Canadian applicants ranked family medicine as their first choice of discipline. Is that really so sudden or alarming? In truth, the match rates have not changed dramatically in some time, with CaRMS reporting that 31.4% chose family medicine in 2021, 36.3% in 2013, 31.8% in 2010, and 31.6% in 2009. In fact, in 2001, fewer than 28% of graduates chose family medicine. This crisis is not new. The high point was 38.5% in 2015.
The real issue is that, over the past few years, after the residency match there have been an alarming number of unfilled (unmatched) positions left over in family medicine in Canada. In 2023, the number was 268. Of note, there were a total of 194 unmatched applicants that year (not including International Medical Applicants and US applicants). Often, that means that students who chose a specialty where there are fewer allocated positions (such as ophthalmology, otolaryngology, or plastic surgery) will not take on family medicine at all and are likely to wait until the following year to try to get into their specialty of choice. The ongoing myth that there are insufficient residency positions for graduating Canadian students appears to be just that: a myth. The reality is that if more students chose family medicine, there would probably be sufficient positions for them.
So, how do we turn this around?
For one thing, we should talk more about the joy of family medicine rather than the challenges and problems. On February 1, 2024, we held the fifth annual President’s Lecture Series—Reviving the Heart of Health Care: The Joy of Practising Family Medicine. It was a fantastic turnout. We had a robust discussion about why graduates should consider family medicine as a career in health care. Dr. Michael Green, President, College of Family Physicians of Canada, spoke about the idea that family medicine is in fact a specialty, and about the breadth and depth of its scope. Dr. Mekalai Kumanan, President, Ontario College of Family Physicians, spoke about recent challenges associated with primary practice as well as solutions, such as the Ontario-specific model of family health teams and how family physicians influence change as advocates.
A panel including Drs. Sarah Newbery (Associate Dean, Physician Workforce Strategy in Marathon), Adam Moir (Associate Professor and Family Physician in Dryden), and Dave McLinden (Associate Professor and Site Liaison Clinician in Huntsville) shared their first-hand experiences in rural Northern contexts and their love for their work. Finally, Drs. Émilie Gillissie, Rebecca Bourdon, and Chandelle Mensour, Family Medicine Residents at NOSM University, told us why they chose to pursue a career in family medicine, and how they envision the future of the discipline.
NOSM University is stepping up to build up interest in Family Medicine and address the critical shortages. Nearly 100 people logged on to watch the fifth annual President Lecture Series on WebEx and YouTube live, and the recording was viewed nearly 500 times in the 10 days following the event. The President’s Lecture Series has also been featured in the news across the North:
CTV News – “NOSM University touting joys of family medicine”
Sudbury.com – “Family medicine crisis far worse in Northern Ontario”
NOSM University has been highly effective at training family physicians—typically having 50% of our graduates making it a career choice. It’s the highest rate in Canada, and our graduates are happy family doctors. Even so, we are hard pressed to keep up with the rate of retirements and physicians leaving practice. The solutions for this are complex—training and educating family physicians and doubling the size of our medical school is only one strategy. The systemic issues are significant. The models of remuneration, distress of hospitals struggling to stay open, and the fact that it is a buyers’ market in which we are competing with the rest of Canada—where there’s an equally significant shortage of physicians—means that Northern Ontario requires special attention. Adequate housing, schools for professionals who have children, jobs for their partners, excellent working environments and turnkey office operations, adequate allied health professionals, including nurses, and infrastructure to support family medicine are in desperate need.
NOSM University, along with other health-care institutions, is critical to the economy of Ontario. Without a strong health-care sector, industry will not invest in our communities. With an increasing burden of chronic diseases and mental health and addictions, along with an ageing population, support for NOSM University, the hospitals, and the health-care system is at a critical point. Notwithstanding the recent announcements of infusions of funding from the federal government, the trickle down to the medical universities and hospitals is yet to be seen. We are working frantically to ensure that the fragile infrastructure does not collapse.
NOSM University will continue to do its part and to advocate for leadership and financial support for us all.
Miigwetch, thank you, marsi, merci,
Dr. Sarita Verma
President, Vice Chancellor, Dean and CEO
NOSM University
If you have any feedback or comments, please reach out at president@nosm.ca and follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @ddsv3.
Launched February 1, a new subject guide focused on Black History Month resources is available from NOSM University’s Health Sciences Library, thanks to a collaboration with the Equity and Inclusion team.
Photo caption: Dr. Verma, Gina Kennedy, Dr. Sean Sullivan, Jessica Pope, Dr. Joseph LeBlanc, Dr. Chiebere Ogbuneke, and Dr. Mercy Kingsley-Emereuwa.
On Saturday, February 3, Dr. Verma and members of the NOSM University community attended the Black History Month Gala (pictured above) hosted by the Afro-Heritage Association of Sudbury.
Resident Awareness Week – February 5-9, 2024
February 5-9, 2024, was Resident Awareness Week in Canada. Residents are pillars of the community and provide indispensable care to patients at a time when our health-care system is stretched.
NOSM University and TMU sign Affiliation Agreement
Photo caption: Dr. Verma (second from left) joins Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano (left), Mohamed Lachemi (centre) and Dr. Teresa Chan (far right) at an affiliation agreement signing event between TMU and NOSM University. Photo courtesy of Toronto Metropolitan University.
Dr. Verma and Joanne Musico, Director, Communications and External Relations, met with Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) President Mohamed Lachemi and Dr. Teresa Chan, Dean of TMU’s new medical school, in Toronto on January 22, 2024. A three-year affiliation agreement aims to build a collaborative and reciprocal relationship that leverages the expertise of both organizations and supports a forward-thinking approach to medical education.
Dr. Naana Jumah, an Obstetrician Gynaecologist at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and Assistant Professor at NOSM University, is an ally and advocate for Indigenous maternal health, and the recent winner of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada’s Carl Nimrod Educator Award. A Rhodes Scholar, PhD in Engineering and Harvard-trained physician, Dr. Jumah has chosen to return home to practise in Thunder Bay, where she grew up after immigrating from Ghana as a child.
She’s quick to credit the many role models who have inspired her—starting with Moffat Makuto, organizer of the Regional Multicultural Youth Center in Thunder Bay.
“Being a newcomer to Canada, I was part of that youth group when I was a kid,” she recalls. “We travelled around the region and did programming for high school students throughout Northwestern Ontario and on reserves. As immigrant and refugee kids, we saw that the kids who had the hardest time adjusting to life in so-called ‘Canada’ were the kids coming from reserves. I saw that then, and it stuck with me. It was an area where I wanted to continue working and have a meaningful impact.”
Dr. Jumah first trained as an engineer, earning a PhD from the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. “I loved engineering, but I really missed the kind of interactions I had when I was working with Moffat in the youth group, getting to know people and being part of their lives,” she says. “I applied to medicine hoping to do both.”
She didn’t initially intend to pursue obstetrics and gynecology. But, when a close family member passed away, Dr. Jumah had to rearrange her medical school clerkships. The result was a long clerkship in obstetrics, gynecology, and gynecological oncology, and she fell in love. “I realized that obstetrics and gynecology brought together all my interests. There was a combination of clinics and work in the operating room. There was an option for advocacy; the issues were important. The combination of skills was a really good fit,” she says.
Dr. Jumah has become a strong advocate and ally. She has supported numerous initiatives to help improve maternal health for Indigenous peoples, including working with Confederation College to train Indigenous women as lay maternal infant support workers, and creating a curriculum to train health-care workers in delivering culturally safe care that builds communications and trust with patients.
The work of which Dr. Jumah is proudest is supporting her colleague, Lisa Bishop, to develop an Indigenous midwifery program in Thunder Bay under an alternative funding model for Indigenous midwifery from the Ministry of Health. She supported the funding application for the program and helps in hospital if a patient needs care from an obstetrician.
“It’s been amazing to see the practice grow,” she says. “I’ve played a small part in trying to be an effective ally. I think it speaks to something tangible that we can do as health-care providers in trying to work towards reconciliation. It’s the right thing to do for patients, and it works towards the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action—more Indigenous care providers, providing care in a culturally appropriate way.”
“Because of who I am, as a Black physician and immigrant, the challenges that patients face can be more obvious to me than they might be to physicians who have a different background,” she says.
For Dr. Jumah, Black History Month is a time to recognize the breadth of contributions from Black Canadians who have been here for generations, as well as immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa.
“Black History Month recognizes the importance of Black Canadians to the wider country. I think oftentimes the contributions are noticed in sports, arts, and entertainment. Outside of that, contributions are often overlooked, and that’s a stereotype of who Black people are. We’re good at sports, we’re good at music, but we’re not good at other things—like academic or technical accomplishments. Black History Month allows the spotlight to be shone on the community as a whole. That goes a long way into breaking those barriers and eliminating those stereotypes,” she says.
