Northern Routes

Season’s greetings! Thankfully, the end of 2020 is nigh.

I am continuing with my tradition of sharing laughter and lessons learned from holiday movies. Now that there is a little snow in Northern Ontario, it feels festive. As we head into the holiday season, it seems like a good time to hunker down and get into the holiday movie-watching mood. If you ask me, even the bad ones are pretty amazing. With most of us staying home during the pandemic this year, why not make it more joyful with some NOSM-themed cheer and these movies. The Holiday (2006) In this lovely flick, Cameron Diaz plays a neurotic movie trailer editor and Kate Winslet plays a British newspaper reporter who decides to swap hou...

Hope is bulletproof: We, at NOSM, have hope.

An Urgent Meeting to Address Racism Experienced by Indigenous Peoples in Canada’s Health Care Systems, organized by Indigenous Services Canada, was recently hosted with nearly 400 participants. This deeply influential meeting was occasioned by the videos of the racism experienced by Joyce Echaquan while seeking health care prior to her death. Many speakers highlighted the pervasiveness of racism in our health care and health-education systems. The most gripping testimony was that of the family of Joyce Echaquan. Many Indigenous leaders, Indigenous physicians, medical students, nurses, and other health-care professions spoke eloquent...

Our Physician Workforce Strategy: NOSM Solutions

There is a serious physician workforce crisis looming in Ontario. The physician shortage has been influenced by several important factors that predate COVID-19, but the consequences of the pandemic have exacerbated the situation significantly. Some of the reasons for the physician shortage include: Disruptions for graduating physicians going into independent practice (provisional licenses are in place but time out for delayed exams); Early retirement of some physicians because of COVID-19 or changes in their scope of practice due to workload challenges; Ongoing difficulty in recruitment and retention for rural, northern, Indig...