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The Rural News |
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The Rural News |
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| Volume 5 Issue 1 |
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January 19th, 2003
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Dr Roger Strasser, founding dean, tasked the participants to  develop
a curriculum "made in Northern Ontario grounded in Northern Ontario"
The curriculum will be further developed by expert teams to incorporate
these elements and others based on accreditation requirements.
Internationally renowned experts gave advice including Dr Paul Worley from Flinders University South Australia (via IT) who described a rural immersion program where medical students spent their entire clerkship in towns under 10,000 population. Students who took that program had an improvement in their test scores that exceeded their peers who stayed in the city. Dr Arthur Kaufman from the University of New Mexico talked about meeting the needs of rural and minority groups. It was more cost efficient for the state to train these people for areas of unmet need as they were more likely to stay in New Mexico. Local presenters included Dr John Bailey of Manitoulin, expert on traditional native practices and how to integrate them into allopathic medicine and Dr Aurel Schofield from Moncton an expert in community based Francophone medical education. Interest in the workshop was so intense that 200 others had to be turned away due to lack of space at the venue. Interview with Tim Allen, East Campus Dean A: NORMS offers an irrisistable opportunity to go from needs to objectives to curriculum. This is hard to do in existing 
medical schools where there is often a disconnect between societal needs,
clear learning objectives, and the curriculum
Q: What is this workshop going to accomplish? A: We hope that this workshop will identify all the important objectives needed for the medical school and to prioritize it. This is just a beginning of a reiterative process with stake holder groups. Q: What are the next steps? A: The next step is to analyse content to identify recurring themes and to ensure that a representative diversity of opinions has been covered. Within a few weeks we will be able to determine if we need to do supplemental workshops to broaden the consultation or if we have enough to proceed directly into developing the curriculum along priorities identified here.
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A Fantastic. I am overwhelmed by the support and commitment across all sectors including doctors, faculty, 
hospitals, universities, nursing, Francophone and aboriginal populations
as demonstrated by the huge turnout.
Furthermore there is full support from the province at the ministry of health and the ministry of training and universities. Both ministers and ministry officials have been quite helpful. Support from the Federal government has been terrific as well with funding for the workshop provided by Fednor. Q: Some say that NOMS will not be able to attract faculty? A: Interest and support has also been shown by the number and quality for applicants that have been received. There were over 30 applicants for campus dean and over 70 applications for the position of CEO. Q: What about doctors from Rural Northern Ontario who might be interested in positions? A: As we work our way through the layers of administration there will be more and more positions being advertised. We will continue to recruit from Northern Ontario and northerners will fill a large number of those roles, supplemented by people from elsewhere. Q: How are rural communities going to benefit from NOMS? A: In achieving our goals we must get the perspective right and keep the balance between rural and urban. Interview with Louis Francescutti West Campus Dean A: I like to build things. I want to graduate a first class so 
successful and so different that the other medical schools will want to
emulate NOMS
Q: How would you characterize success for NOMS? A: First of all success will have to be internal so that NOMS operational standards are responsive to community and staff. Secondly by fulfilling community needs. In fact what will set NOMS apart is blending a curriculum based on community needs and accreditation standards to produce qualified competent doctors. Q: How do you address the various needs of rural, urban, francophone and aboriginal needs? A: NOMS is a child that has had a difficult birth.. Now we have to focus on nurturing and raising the child. I see this that this child has an aunt and uncle in every community in the north .
Articles published in the rural news are opinion of the author(s) unless specifically identified as SRPC policy |
