Partners working to get more people into health care careers

The University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina are teaming up with the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority (NITHA), the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) and Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch to find ways to increase the number of Aboriginal people employed in the province's health care sector.
The three-year research project has received more than $295,000 in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Heath Research. It's being led by Pammla Petrucka, assistant professor in the University of Saskatchewan's College of Nursing, and Dr. Eber Hampton from the University of Regina. Both Petrucka and Hampton are researchers with the Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre, a joint initiative of the First Nations University of Canada and the two universities.
"The project is really about getting more Aboriginal people into the health care system, working within the health care sector in a variety of positions." Petrucka said. "And the reason for that ... is basically to be a more representative workforce, to meet the needs of our Aboriginal clients, to provide role models and mentors for Aboriginal youth and people coming into the workforce that may want to actually be more active participants in the system. And we're keenly interested in being able to ensure that our systems are allowing or enabling Aboriginal people to be better represented within the health care system."
As part of the process, researchers will also be working with organizations that are already working to increase the number of Aboriginal people choosing health care careers, such as the Native Access Program to Nursing (NAPN), a support and retention service for Aboriginal nursing students that has been operating for 20 years.
"We will work with NAPN. We'll look at them as one of our key informants," Petrucka said. "They're a group that has a lot of experience and knowledge about how we get more Aboriginal people involved and what are some of the strengths and barriers, where are the challenges and opportunities."
While the universities are leading the research, the direction the research will go in will be decided based on community needs as defined by NITHA. The Prince Albert Grand Council, the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band are partners in the health authority. Combined, the partner organizations include more than 30 northern communities and account for almost half of the on-reserve First Nation population in Saskatchewan.
"It's going to be rooted in what the community, the NITHA community, identifies as their needs," Petrucka said. "Usually what happens in many research cases is that often times the needs are identified by the researchers ... This time the needs will be identified by NITHA and it will be them who bring forward where they want to go. They may say, 'We really want to work on mental health workers,' or 'We really want to work on dental hygienists' ... it depends on what their needs are and where they see their future going."
While the most obvious benefit of this research initiative will be increasing employment opportunities for Aboriginal people, creating a more representative health care workforce will also mean benefits for Aboriginal patients.
"Well, I think the benefits that we will start to see are things like we'll have a health human resource sector that's better informed about Aboriginal needs and Aboriginal ways of doing things. We'll be able to be more responsive," Petrucka said. "We'll have role models, people who are working in that sector that can role model and then encourage people or be able to bring more people and get more people involved in these types of careers."
Increasing the number of Aboriginal health care workers will also have the added benefit of exposing non-Aboriginal workers to the knowledge Aboriginal workers may have about ways to best meet the needs of Aboriginal clients.
If it's successful, Petrucka believes this research project could serve as a model for similar initiatives in employment sectors other than health care. She's also hopeful that part of the legacy of the project will be relationships between the partners that will continue long after the three-year initiative has been completed.
The research initiative is just one of many ways organizations are working to increase the number of Aboriginal people pursing careers in the healthcare sector. On Nov. 1, the Saskatoon Health Region launched a new online career planning tool, www.saskatoonhealthcareers.ca, designed to help young people, recent graduates and people already working in the health care sector have quick and easy access to information about health career opportunities in the region. The health region lists Aboriginal youth among the target markets it hopes to reach through the new Web site, which includes a representative workforce area that highlights the health region's commitment to creating a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community it serves.