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In the Spotlight, Uncategorized

Taking pride in pronouns

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Understanding and recognizing gender identities is important to delivering inclusive, patient-centered health care. Often, pronouns have a gender implied which are not always accurate or needed. Understanding how to correctly use and share one’s pronouns is a sign of safety and respect.

Unfortunately, often people aren’t aware of how to do this. That’s why Lucie Ménard and Ashley Perreault decided to take action.

Lucie, a second-year NOSM medical student in Sudbury, and Ashley, a first-year NOSM medical student in Thunder Bay, are both the Local Officers of Reproductive and Sexual Health (LORSH) for NOSM, and sit on a national committee with LORSH representatives from 13 medical schools across Canada. During a meeting, the group identified the misuse of pronouns as an important issue nationwide.

“After our meeting, we consulted with fellow medical students, colleagues, and friends from the Queer community about their experiences with pronoun misuse. What we learned is that individuals feel a sense of security when asked or addressed by their preferred pronouns. Hearing this, we wanted to normalize pronoun use and create an environment that is welcoming and inclusive for all gender identities,” says Ashley.

An eye-catching solution was proposed—a wearable pronoun pin. The students collaborated with community members and the NOSM Library and Communications teams to create the pins and develop a complete initiative for distribution. The pins can be attached to a lanyard, lab coat or clothing to highlight an individual’s preferred pronoun. The pins also spark conversation about the importance of pronouns.

“Proper pronoun use was something we as medical students were all aware of, but we didn’t receive formal education on this topic. As LORSHs we decided to take this initiative as an opportunity to educate ourselves and our NOSM community on pronoun use through an infographic and a subject guide” says Lucie.

Recognizing that an infographic wouldn’t be sufficient to close the knowledge gap, they built a subject guide available through the NOSM Library. The subject guide was developed by Jennifer Dumond, Danica Desjardins, Aidan Goertzen and LORSH. It highlights evidence-based research and resources regarding Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and other gender-fluid communities (​2SLGBTQ+).

The uptake was high. “The response has been very positive. The library subject guide has had over 470 views so far and individuals have been thanking us for this one-stop-shop for educational resources and for starting the conversation. Over 240 people from NOSM signed up to receive a pronoun pin, including learners, staff, faculty and residents,” says Lucie.

NOSM partners, health-care centres, hospitals and medical schools across the country have also taken notice. Health Sciences North (HSN) in Sudbury reached out and are working with Ashley and Lucie to launch a pronoun pin initiative at the hospital during Pride week. Two other medical schools have asked for guidance to create something similar at their school.

“Allyship means taking action and we hope to inspire other students to work on the projects they’re passionate about,” says Ashley. “I hope we inspire students to collaborate with other departments and staff at NOSM who have allowed us to make this initiative a reality. We couldn’t have done this alone.”

Lucie also encourages everyone at NOSM to reflect on their surroundings and what health inequities are occurring in their community. “As medical students, we don’t have a lot of free time, but we chose to advocate for something that we’re passionate about.”

NOSM is making pronoun pins part of the orientation package for new medical students. “We’re hoping this will become part of the standard,” says Ashley. “It is important for the incoming students to recognize that NOSM is an inclusive community. As future health-care professionals, we hope the pins will also spark the conversation regarding inclusivity early on in their career.”

Want to learn more?

Respect the Difference logoThe Respect the Difference movement was developed by NOSM to bring awareness to a culture of kindness and respect in the learning and work environment. We hope that together, we can ignite a positive cultural change that is grounded in respect and reaches beyond the NOSM community. We encourage all Canadian medical schools and the medical sector to join our movement.

We all have the potential to be changemakers, and we have the mutual responsibility to take action toward a culture of kindness, respect and compassion. It starts here at NOSM. It starts with you.

Become a Changemaker.

Homepage News, Indigenous Stories, News

NOSM Celebrates National Indigenous Peoples Day

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June 21, 2021 marks the 25th annual National Indigenous Peoples Day, a day when we celebrate the diverse culture, the rich history and the wondrousness of First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples—our colleagues, friends and family. This date was chosen for many reasons, including its cultural significance as the summer solstice, and the fact that it is a day on which many Indigenous peoples and communities across the region traditionally celebrate their heritage.

Today is an important day for all Canadians to observe. Participate in Indigenous cultural celebrations and be open to listening and learning about the history, culture and perspectives of Indigenous communities across the North.

We must also pay heed to the legacy of missing and murdered women and children, residential schools—particularly with the recent discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on the lands of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia and now more in Manitoba and Saskatchewan—and to lost children of the Sixties Scoop. There continues to be unacceptable living conditions, water and food insecurity, and the spread of the pandemic in vulnerable communities. Please take the time to reflect on systemic racism while also embracing Indigeneity as an inherent integral part of being Canadian.

Today, let’s collectively honour the contributions of Indigenous Peoples, while recognizing their sustained resiliency in the face of systemic racism and colonization.

 

Addressing the Gaps, Alumni Stories, Community Stories, Gallery, In the Spotlight

NOSM alumnus helps to end Atikokan’s doctor shortage

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A few years ago, Atikokan was a town in crisis having only one full-time and one half time family physician for a population of approximately 2,800. The community relied heavily on a rotation of locums to meet its health-care needs.

Today, the town has a stable physician workforce that is able to provide patient-centered care, continuity of care and, importantly, a supportive network for physicians. Dr. Shawn Minor is a graduate of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) MD Class of 2016 and completed his residency at University of British Columbia in 2018. Originally from Thunder Bay, Dr. Minor and his wife, with their young children, decided to return to Atikokan to be closer to their extended family.

“I was the fourth doctor to join the community,” says Dr. Minor. “There was a kind of snowball effect at that point. Some of the locums who had been part of the Atikokan rotating pool of locums started to see physicians signing up to start permanent practices in the community. I think that prompted a realization that they wouldn’t be able to rotate in and out indefinitely, and we had a number of physicians sign on within eight months.”

The town of Atikokan, located 200 km west of Thunder Bay, is well known to outdoor enthusiasts as one of the main access points into beautiful Quetico Provincial Park, the “Canoeing Capital of Canada.” The name Atikokan, is Ojibwa-Chippewa translated as ‘caribou bones’ or ‘caribou crossing.’

Dr. Minor says it’s an ideal place to practice, in part, because of the unique and innovative ways he is personally able to deliver care. “The thing I love most is being able to do home visits with my vulnerable older patients. I’ve done home visits by bicycle, by motorcycle, I’ve also walked to home visits during my lunch,” he says. “I’ve done portable ultrasound injections during home visits because the technology is so compact and the geography of the town is easy to navigate, allowing me to go in person. I can go to the hospital in the morning then bike to the clinic after, and I really enjoy this lifestyle and continuity of care. It’s amazing.”

He says patients also gain several advantages. The Atikokan physician community is close-knit and mutually supportive, leading to better care in ways that are not accessible in urban centres.

“My colleagues and I are in constant communication with one another. They can call me from the Emergency Department and I can do the same. I am able to access my clinic’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR) from the hospital and find information about a patient’s individual medical history really quickly—which was a source of frustration in an urban Emergency, where I frequently had no context or patient history to reference,” says Dr. Minor. “Likewise, I’ve had urgent calls from colleagues in Emergency asking if they should do resuscitation and I’m able to offer appropriate advice based on the patient’s wishes that were documented in the clinic. It truly allows for the most appropriate, patient-centred emergency care.”

Dr. Minor says it takes supportive physician leaders to build a community of practice that will sustain a physician and health-care workforce in a small Northern community. “Locums enjoyed rotating here because one of the long-term doctors was supportive. Anytime they came, they knew they’d have back-up and there was always help available in emergencies. That level of support is a huge factor in deciding to work full-time in a community,” Dr. Minor says.

“I think if physicians arrive in a place where they feel supported by the community and by the people who work there, they tend not to feel overwhelmed, they have better experiences, and they are able to find a good balance,” says Dr. Minor.

Some physicians continue to come and go, but four are in Atikokan to stay. “We have one doctor who commutes from Vancouver and another commutes from Toronto,” Dr. Minor explains. He describes the flexibility of scheduling as a strength. “It’s an interesting mix of people with different scheduling styles which works because we are supportive of each other and we are able to give one another enough flexibility to work in different ways. We are also fortunate to have a competent clinic manager to put it all together.”

Since NOSM’s inception in 2002, the School’s goal has been to graduate physicians and health-care professionals to meet the health needs across the region. With a total of 714 NOSM MD graduates to date, there is still a need for more than 300 family physicians and specialists in rural and remote Northern communities. Of this group, 126 family physicians are needed, with 86 of these needed in rural communities.

NOSM recently received a $210,000 donation from Derek Day from his late mother’s estate—the Estate of Ruth Day—to assist in transforming physician workforce planning in Northern Ontario. This generous donation will support the creation of a new Rural Generalist Pathway at NOSM.

The School recently launched its new strategic plan, The NOSM Challenge 2025.

Please consider joining The Challenge and donors like Derek Day who are making a difference in transforming health care in Northern Ontario. To make a difference, make your gift at nosm.ca/give.