At long last I’ve had 10 hours sleep (rather than 3) and feel human again with some time to catch up on emails and THIS BLOG! … just in case you were wondering if HoS had actually got to Rendez-vous 2012. For some odd reason I have had bad jet lag but have also had a great conference … just hadn’t had any time …

The best bit about being here is the opportunity to catch up with so many old friends and to meet amazing new people. And there are so many things to do and places to visit. This must be the best conference for relevant learning I’ve ever been to.

We were plunged into it straight on arrival as Daivd Campbell and I with our colleague Ian Couper from Wits Centre for Rural Health in South Africa ran a 3.5 hour workshop on defining the roles of rural clinical academic leaders, on Day 1. It was a small select group of 15 clinical academics and we have really good data now to add to those collected at the workshop we ran earlier in the year in Johannesburg. I have spent many of the sleepless hours writing up the workshop and it’s almost ready to send on to participants for their input. A great way to write a paper for publication!

But what I really wanted to share was the experience last night of the most beautiful sunset I have seen in a long time (and I’ve seen a few). I couldn’t get the bus to Sudbury for ‘conference on the move’ as I was giving a short presentation on our 20th anniversay at Thursday’s Cultural Evening, so I hired a car planning to catch up with the group last night. What I hadn’t bargained for was SNOW. Anyhow fortunately on Frisday morning the road was re-opened and I had a great drive through glorious Fall (autumn) landscapes with the most amazingly colorful foliage and decided to be sensible after 10 hours and break my journey at the small community of Thessalon, on the shoreline on Lake Huron’s North Channel. NOSM medical students come here and it was recommended as a special place.

Andrew and Susan own the Carolyn Beach Hotel 50 units on 3,000 feet of private beach and the most beautiful panoramic sunset I have experienced in a long while = A MOST BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE sitting on the verandah with a bowl of homemade soup, a cheese and tomato sandwhich and a glass of white wine!

So this morning I’m just off for a brisk (v cold) walk to the rocky point to build an inuk shuk before visiting the local hopsital and driving onto Sudbury to catch up with the group and Day ?? of the conference.

Judi

Today we’ve been out and about on the conference Portage Express where we get to go on our selected community visits in the Thunder Bay area. Stop one for me was the Kinna-aweya Poverty Law Clinic which combines law reform, legal casework & community development activities. I was priveliged to meet some of the staff and five recent graduates from the Clinic’s New Directions Speaker’s and Leadership Development School who each gave an oral presentation about their life journeys and plans for the future. In a word…humbling.

Later in the day, I ventured forth to learn about video-conferencing, Education and technology at ‘An evening at the Theatre’. Oops…not that theatre & not that technology. Gulp. Dressed in my blue operating theatre gear & shaking a little in my shoe covers I was lucky enough to see a (simulated) demonstration of the stealth technology used to pinpoint areas of brain for surgery, laser the first letter of my name into piece of wood without torching anything,had a try at fusing the discs in the spine model and learnt a little about knee replacement technologies. Brilliant!

Each day of the conference has opened new insights and surprising learning encounters – from the keynotes presentations through to the theatre!

Natalie Radomski

Highlight of Rendez-Vous 2012 Day 4 would have to be the visit to Lakehead University’s Telemedicine headquarters.

The Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) is one of the largest telemedicine networks in the world. Using two-way videoconferencing, OTN provides access to care for patients in every hospital and hundreds of other health care locations across the province. In addition to clinical care, they facilitate the delivery of distance education and meetings for health care professionals and patients.

In relation to distance education the OTN enables teaching and learning at a distance via videoconferencing and webcasting. OTN connects learners to academic centres and other education providers. More than 390,000 health care professionals participate in OTN-facilitated education each year.

Ontario’s OTN is the largest videoconferencing network in the world and is available in telemedicine studios located at more than 1200 sites across the province. Videoconferencing makes it possible for health care professionals to conduct initial and/or follow-up patient consultations, or participate in distance education and meetings. OTN is extending the reach of telemedicine by making it possible for physicians to access videoconferencing from their personal computers.

The presentation at Lakehead University was truly an eye-opener. Monash has a long way to go before getting anywhere near to what I experienced today….AND the government here contributes $20M each year which is dedicated to the OTN. Staggering…..

The possibilities would be endless at Monash if we were set up in this way…not just to enable medical attention to be delivered to rural and remote populations, but to also be set up in such a seemless way so as to enable med students who are located at rural hospitals who more often than not have firewalls in place so communication back to education provider sites is not possible, to be able to save on travel costs associated with having to travel back to sites in order to videoconference into central campus or other RCS campuses.

Ah…..one can dream……goodnight 🙂

Laura

Today, of all the conference so far, I have been inspired. A bus load (including Kathy B, Cathy H and myself) travelled 4+ hours north west from Thunder Bay to the small town (5500 people) of Sioux Lookout. This afternoon we were given a tour of the new (2010) hospital and returned in the evening for a night of cultural food and the history of the development of this inspiring place. The population in the region is 80% Native American. The history of the ‘first nation’ people is not unlike our own aboriginal people.

The hospital services an area the size of France with 25,000 people in small aboriginal communities many with only access by air. The development of the hospital and the service comes after a 20 year negotiated process to get agreement signed and a subsequent period of planning before the hospital was opened 2 years ago. The hospital design takes into account the spiritual beliefs of the local Indian population. This includes a separate ceremonial / healing place within the hospital. The service allows the use of traditional healing along side the hospital services. Food includes traditional food such as moose, local fish and other game (yumm).

We have been treated to sharing in and tasting the ceremonies, food and more importantly the stories of the people and the journey to create this place. This place shows that it is possible to journey from ‘them’ to ‘them and us’ to …. ‘us’. While this is an obvious exception it does show what can be done.

We return tomorrow morning before heading back to Thunder Bay in the afternoon.

Cheers
Graham

It is Day 4 of the conference, We had a plenary session about innovative models in medical education given by Drs Ted Epperly, Jill Konkin and Jill Downie. Dr Epperley talked about models of education deliery in postgraduate teaching then Dr Jill Konkin talked about Undergraduate teaching using the situated learning theory and community engagement. Dr Jill Downie talked about the establishment of Interprofessional learning models in health sciences.
My community visits today started with Fort William Historical Park where I had a two hour tour of the park. It is one of the largest living history attractions in North America, devoted to re-creating the days of the North West Company and the Canadian fur trade. Fort William Historical Park is recognized as one of the Top Ten Attractions in Canada and one of the world’s most impressive historic sites.
In the afternoon, I visited Sister Margaret Smith Centre for mental health and addictions. What I saw was very different to what I anticipated. The centre specializes in treating people with mental illness and addiction. It has a structured program for the residents including; gardening, art and craft activities, mindfullness exercises. We also watched a movie showing the struggles of some of the residents, The staff were very friendly and helpful, they even offered us pop corn while watching the movie.
Hanan Khalil

The theme of the plenay sessions today was about social accountability through sustainable partnerships. All three speakers talked about the theme in different context. Dr Charles Boens talked about NOSM as a good example of how an instituition can incorporate social accountability into its mandate. Dr Yarnold from Australia gave an excellent presentation about the efforts in improving Aboriginal Health issues in Australia and finally,Dr Doris Mitchell is an aboriginal woman from Canada, gave a very emotional speech about social accountability in medical education. She also talked about the history of aboriginal people in Canada. It certainly was the highlight of the conference for me so far!
Hanan

Judi and I presented an oral paper about community engagement for research as a model of multi-organisational approach….Just imagine giving a presentation with you Boss!!.. not an easy task..Having said that…We did very well and had received positive feedback about how clear our presentation was..A couple of questions were raised about the complexity of engaging with the community and doing research but we handled them well….One more presentation to go!
Hanan

Dr Bryan MacLeod and the Cambrian Improv Theatre Group managed to get the entire lunch time crowd in the ballroom up to participate in a series of improv theatre games to demonstrate how failing can be a hilarious way to try and then try again. Our acting skills were put to the test as well our improvisaion skills. I think I’ll stick to my ‘day job’.

PeArLs attended today included one which looked at attributes of medical programs which affect student resilience. What makes a resilient med student? Is it when they successfully deal with being located in a rural and remote setting and need to adapt to their new lifestyle in a more isolated environemnt than what they might be used to? Generally, rural medical programs ensure that students have better access to one-on-one mentoring, clinical supervision and (possibly) support networks.

What about the med student who has to do battle with 60-70 other med students in a busy metropolitan hospital in order to gain access to patients and who has to be self-directed in order to schedule small group tutorials. What mechanisms are in place to enable these students to remain resilient throughout their clinical undergraduate years? Food for thought…..

Laura Major

Wednesday night Rendez-Vous celebrated the coming together of conference participants from around the world which not only allowed for networking but paid recognition of organisations, professional affiliations and the community.

The evening started with a cocktail reception.

SRH staff donned their finery and enjoyed a meal and a drink and the chance to sit in one spot without having to check the time and making sure they were in the right venue.

Following a fine meal and a drink we polished off our dancing shoes and danced the night away to the wonderful group The Sensational Hot Rods. Several of the staff were in the last group to be escorted from the ballroom!

Elaine Evans
Gippsland Regional Clinical School

Dr. Bryan MacLeod delivered a hilarious afternoon session on “Becoming Socially Accountable by Sustainable Partnerships”. Bryan is a family physician in Thunder Bay. He gave a very entertaining lesson on learning to “fail well and laugh about it”. We broke out into groups and played games. We laughed for at least 75% of the one hour session and learnt to regain humanity through improv theatre. I must admit my acting skills were less then average, nonetheless, we had a fun time. Dr MacLeod, thank you, you’ve added minutes to my life by making me laugh so much.

Kendall Livingstone
Mildura Regional Clinical School