Medical school holds Aboriginal workshop

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A three-day workshop hosted by Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation near Kenora brought together 131 delegates who shared wisdom on "how to involve Aboriginal people in their medical school," said Michael OReilly, communications officer with NOMS-West.

NOMS stands for Northern Ontario Medical School, a joint venture of Laurentian and Lakehead universities, which is in its start-up phase now. The school announced its first board of directors last month, and its first class of undergraduate medical students will begin their studies in the fall of 2005.

The intense workshop, held June 10 to 12, heard from Elders, traditional healers, western medical professionals, students, government officials and others with expertise in the field of Aboriginal health.

The aim of the conference was not only to talk about the role that Native people would have as students and teachers in the unique program, but to ask them for their ideas about the design of the school and its curriculum as well.

Darcia Borg is on the NOMS staff and helped to organize the workshop. Her role is in physician support and Aboriginal curriculum development. Borg is also responsible for compiling the data from the June conference into a report, which is expected to be completed in September.

"We were really pleased with the organizational representation," said Borg. The Union of Ontario Indians, Nishnawbe-Aski Nation, Treaty 3, independent First Nations, the Ontario Metis Aboriginal Association, the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres, the Metis Nation of Ontario and the Ontario Native Women's Association were all part of the working group that planned the workshop.

They also relied on the expertise of Oshkipimacheo-win, a Thunder Bay-based Aboriginal education institute, which participated with NOMS and the working group as conference planners.

"The delegates spent the three days presenting ideas around student admissions and curriculum development, and identified community health priorities and needs. As well, we had a really nice arrangement of speakers, ranging from medical students, doctors and traditional healers," Darcia Borg said.

In the afternoons, delegates split into working groups. As a result, Borg has 100 pages of notes to assemble into a report.

"It was just phenomenal. There's just an avalanche of ideas that have come out from this. We are extremely pleased."

Everyone connected to NOMS is focused on the goal of improving the health outcomes of Northern Ontario, by graduating doctors who have a commitment to remaining in northern communities and providing continuity of care.

"There's the whole concept of the life cycle of a physician that we're working on. So it's not just that we're going to train them and then we're going to shut them out the door; we're going to train them and then support them all the way through their practice, so when they want continuing education, we'll be there to support that. If they want to go back to do some research, if they want to expand their skills in other ways, the medical school will be there to help," said OReilly.

He added the strong theme since the school's inception and highlighted again at the conference was "that Aboriginal people definitely want to be part of-they don't want to be an adjunct to, they want to be a part of-the medical school. They want to be part of the governance. They want to be part of the organization that sets curricula and that sets policy."

He said that is a theme that NOMS has itself put forward from the start.