U of S wants more Aboriginal healthcare students

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It's long been known that First Nation people are under-represented in healthcare-related positions in Saskatchewan and across Canada. The University of Saskatchewan (U of S) is trying to reverse that trend.

It's not that First Nations people don't have the ability, explained Dr. Peter Butt, director of Northern Medical Services and co-chair of the Health Sciences Deans Aboriginal Working Group at the U of S. Butt, who is also an associate professor of Family Medicine, sees many Aboriginal people who are capable of becoming doctors and nurses. "They just aren't able to access the opportunities," he said.

The problem goes back to systemic issues, he said, such as the lack of math and science education in rural areas, a problem throughout the province, not just among Aboriginal communities.

He said it is also necessary to overcome history and racism so Aboriginal people know there is a place for them in the healthcare system.

Roberta Jamieson, CEO of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, spoke at the U of S on Jan. 14, and she agreed it's hard to encourage children to go into medicine, partly because some Aboriginal people have had bad experiences with healthcare providers, so they mistrust them. She said there is also a "fundamental lack of confidence."

One Aboriginal graduate from the U of S College of Medicine, Dr. Veronica McKinney, told Butt a story about that very lack of confidence she experienced while working in La Ronge.

"A woman came to see her and said, 'I just wanted to see you. There's nothing wrong. I just never believed we could do this.'"

Part of the working group's mandate is to let Aboriginal people know they can contribute to the healthcare system and to provide them with the path to actually achieving that. Seventeen Aboriginal physicians have graduated from the College of Medicine so far, including Dr. Janet Tootoosis, who practices in North Battleford, Dr. Lucy Nickel, who practices on Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, and Dr. Michael Goldney, who works in the Athabasca Health Authority.

Currently there are three Aboriginal students in first year medicine and at least two in residency.

Sometimes these students speak to youth in high schools, which is one way the university tries to encourage Aboriginal people to enter the health sciences-medicine, nursing, kinesiology, pharmacy and physiotherapy.

The university also partners with regional and technical colleges where students are upgrading because they may want to go to university afterwards.

Right now there are three to six seats out of 60 available to Aboriginal students in the College of Medicine. Saskatchewan Aboriginal students compete against each other for those spots and have to meet the same admission criteria as other pre-med students.

Providing support once students enter university is also very important because the dropout rate during the first year of studies is higher among First Nation students than among non-First Nation students, Butt said.

"What we see is 24 to 27 per cent of first years leave. That goes up to 44 per cent for Aboriginal students."

He said the dropout rates stem from the challenge of adjusting to life away from family and support networks when leaving home and moving to the city.

There is a program-the Native Access Program to Nursing-designed to help students make the adjustment by helping students find accommodation, providing childcare and providing access to Elders. The working group would like to see similar programs in other health sciences.

Elders should play a key role in the curriculum, said Butt. Curriculum development is ongoing, and needs to expand on Aboriginal health and Indigenous knowledge, which would include traditional approaches to healing.

Another part of the initiative is attracting Aboriginal doctors to the College of Medicine's faculty. Right now there are three Aboriginal faculty members-Dr. Sylvia Abonyi, Dr. Janet Smiley and D. Lewis Mehl-Madrona.

Butt said there is still a lot of work to do on the Aboriginal initiative because it is not at the level it should be. There is so much history to overcome, and the problem is generational.

In the past, "education was used as a weapon, not a tool," he said, citing residential schools as the primary example. The residential schools affected the value parents placed on education and literacy when teaching their children.