On January 8, 2009, as part of a settlement of two outstanding Ontario Labour Relations Board Applications, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), Laurentian University Staff Union (LUSU) , and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) agreed to hold a Certification vote for eligible employees at all NOSM locations* who are working in office, clerical, administrative, technical and service positions. This excludes employees who are members of the Faculty Bargaining Unit and other agreed upon staff exclusions.

The Certification vote will determine whether employees wish to be represented in their employment relationship with NOSM by either LUSU or OPSEU or to remain Non-Union. The vote will take place on February 10 -11, 2009.

During the campaigning period preceding the vote, and until the result of the vote is confirmed, NOSM will not make comment on the process, or speculate as to the outcome.

(*NOSM employees are located in Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Kenora, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins).

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) held its first Faculty Affairs Retreat in Thunder Bay on January 16 – 17, 2009.

NOSM has over 800 faculty members across Northern Ontario, and many of them gathered in Thunder Bay to bring NOSM’s three faculty divisions (Medical Sciences, Human Sciences and Clinical Sciences) together in one place to facilitate a free-flow of ideas and information about current and potential future collaborative research and scholarly activities.

The retreat featured an open forum, where Medical Sciences and Human Sciences faculty members gave brief presentations on current research projects. This was followed by a compelling presentation by Dr. Len Kelly from Sioux Lookout, in which he shared his experience and expertise as an active clinician undertaking research. Three faculty development sessions rounded out the two-day meeting: “How to Facilitate Small-Group Learning,” by Dr. Anne Robinson and Dr. Bob Chaudhuri; “Research 101 for Clinicians,” by Dr. Greg Ross; and “Integrated Clinical Learning,” by Ms. Sue Berry, Dr. Richard Almond, and Dr. Saleem Malik.

Dr. McCready, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, says the retreat was a great success, especially in terms of fostering relationships and collaborations among the many physicians and health professionals across the North who assist in delivering NOSM’s unique model of distributed medical education. “It is my belief that in the near future we will see the development of collaborative research projects aimed at improving the health of Northerners, which had their origins at this retreat,” he said.

The Faculty Affairs Unit provides leadership, supervision, and representation for the faculty of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to ensure that the School always has the teaching resources to provide the highest quality educational experience for learners, while building the capacity and commitment of teaching resources throughout Northern Ontario by supporting research and academic activities of NOSM faculty.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) held its second, highly successful annual Comprehensive Community Clerkship (CCC) Retreat, entitled “Celebration and Collaboration within a Community of Learners,” in Kenora on January 9 – 11, 2009.

The 2008-2009 academic year marks the second year that NOSM medical students are completing clerkships in medium-sized communities throughout the North as part of their third-year studies. Over 130 participants, including NOSM staff, Site Administrative Coordinators, Site Liaison Clinicians, Local NOSM Group (LNG) members, and medical students from clerkship communities across Northern Ontario attended the 2009 retreat. Participants shared their experiences, and in a combination of whole group, streamed, and concurrent sessions, explored topics of relevance to the distinctive CCC component of NOSM’s model of community engaged medical education.

Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Founding Dean, says ongoing open dialogue between CCC participants is invaluable to the continuous enhancement of the community-engaged model of medical education for which NOSM has gained international recognition. “This retreat was an opportunity to spend time with each other, ‘compare notes,’ and share our experiences and insights into the Comprehensive Community Clerkship program so that we may further our common goal of educating physicians who understand and appreciate the unique features and benefits of practicing medicine in Northern communities,” he said.

Dr. William B. Shore, Mentor Facilitator and Director of Medical Education Program Development for the Department of Family and Community at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), was the keynote speaker of the retreat. Dr. Shore’s presentation, entitled “Perspectives from the Longitudinal Clerkship at the University of California, San Francisco,” provided retreat attendees with an overview of UCSF’s new clinical training program named Parnassus Integrated Student Clinical Experiences (PISCES), wherein each year 16 undergraduate medical students receive clinical training at local health centres.

Community engaged medical education is a distinctive hallmark of NOSM. Currently, 12 communities participate in NOSM’s Comprehensive Community Clerkship program: Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Temiskaming Shores, Sioux Lookout, Parry Sound, North Bay, Huntsville, Kenora, Bracebridge, Fort Frances, Kapuskasing, and Dryden.