Galleries

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

NOSM alumnus helps to end Atikokan’s doctor shortage

Gallery

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.

 

Board, Media Releases

Notice of NOSM’s Board of Directors Meeting and the Annual Meeting of Members

Gallery

Take notice that the Annual Meeting of Members of the
NORTHERN ONTARIO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
will be held as follows:

DATE: Wednesday, September 30, 2020

TIME: 4:00 pm – 6:30 pm ET*

LOCATION: WebEx Meeting

(Notice is attached)

The meetings will be as follows (please note times are estimated):

  • Meeting Part 1: Final Board of Directors Meeting 2019-2020 at 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
  • Meeting Part 2: Annual Meeting of Members 5:00 pm at 5:15 pm *
  • Meeting Part 3: First Board of Directors Meeting of 2020-2021 at 5:15 pm – 6:30 pm

The purpose of the Annual Meeting of Members is to:

  • to review and approve the minutes of the last Members’ meeting,
  • to receive the financial statements for the Corporation for the year ended April 30, 2020,
  • to elect the Corporation’s Directors and Officers and to set their terms for the ensuing year,
  • to appoint auditors for the forthcoming fiscal year and to fix the auditors’ remuneration,
  • to transact any such further and other business as may properly come before the meeting.

 

BY ORDER OF THE BOARD
Gina Kennedy, Corporate Secretary

 

For Directors ~ additional information will follow regarding the Board of Directors Meetings

  • To attend the Electronic Annual Meeting of Members as a guest please notify the Secretary by email governance@nosm.ca by Friday, September 18, 2020.
  • Details to access the meeting will be sent to all guests no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, September 25, 2020.
  • For the Annual Meeting: To review the meeting documents, please click on the links below [@nosm access may be required]: Annual Meeting of Members Minutes of September 18, 2019 and the Agenda and Materials
  • For information regarding this notice, please contact the Office of the Board of Directors, Northern Ontario School of Medicine by email governance@nosm.ca
  • Due to the current restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic, this meeting will be held via electronic meeting platform.  Access to campus is limited until further notice.

2020 Notice of Annual Meeting of Members PDF

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

NOSM-acquired Skills Help Fill a Gap in Care for Underserved Populations   

Gallery

Dr. Andrea Haner (MD Class of 2010) is applying the skills she learned at NOSM to treat diverse, underserved populations. She is the only GP Oncologist treating gynecological cancer in the Southwest Alberta region.

“The population I work with is very underserved. If I didn’t do this work, women would have to commute to Calgary—a two-and-a-half-hour drive into the cancer centre for most,” says Dr. Haner. “Instead, they can come to Lethbridge for chemotherapy treatment.”

The skills Dr. Haner learned at NOSM, with a focus on the personal side of medicine, helped prepare her for the subspecialties she’s taken on, including serving a diverse populations in family medicine with the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) team, on-call with the hospital sexual assault team, and in her family practice at Lethbridge College and as a GP Oncologist. In her family practice location, Dr. Haner works with diverse populations, she sees college students for mental health concerns and hormone therapy for transgender students, as well as other populations outside of the college including Hutterites, Mexican Mennonites, local and surrounding Indigenous communities.

“While at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, I found I spent a lot of time helping patients with social problems and navigating the health-care system. An important part of my work is helping people with really, really difficult aspects of their lives. At NOSM, I learned how to be compassionate and really get to know patients and it’s very satisfying,” says Dr. Haner.

She says she didn’t anticipate moving west, however, Dr. Haner’s passion for cancer care led her to BC Cancer’s general practitioners in oncology program, then subsequently to Alberta when the local cancer centre was seeking someone with her skills.

“I’m very proud of my training in the North. The NOSM education was very broad-based, which is its strength. I was exposed to patients very early on and to preceptors who offered tips and hints from breaking bad news to patients, to navigating the system, and working with language interpreters. It all ends up being so important in everyday work life,” says Dr. Haner.

These days, her varied practice in Lethbridge also includes serving the 50 per cent rural population via telephone and telehealth, and helping coordinate and guide people in smaller centres—another skill she learned at NOSM.

“Medical students from larger cities don’t realize the limitations of smaller centres, for instance offering guidance for CT scanners or what rural family doctors are able to do with very limited resources. I gained a really good understanding of those challenges,” says Dr. Haner.

“It just so happened that I found my way in Alberta. NOSM set me up to bring my skill set anywhere and I am providing important care to underserved populations. When you go into medicine you don’t have to be pigeon-holed to one location or type of practice, you can diversify as you grow in your career.”

Dr. Haner encourages wellness, diversity and inclusion to also be considered as choices in medical practice. For her, working in rural health is where she always wanted to be. “Think about how your skills can help any underserved population. That is the most valuable service,” says Dr. Haner.