This text is part of the special section Higher Education
Promote access to professional health programs
A new initiative for college students launched by students at McGill University targets populations that are underrepresented in professional health care programs. This mentoring program makes students aware of the possibilities of undertaking studies in fields such as medicine, nursing, pharmacology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
Happy with their volunteer experience with secondary schools as part of the Explore program! Careers in Health!, Christina Antinora and Caitlin Stoddart, two university medical students from low-income households, wanted to pursue this approach with CEGEP students who do not necessarily have a network or the resources to be guided towards this type of university studies. The McGill Mentorships in Healthcare program therefore came to meet a need.
“Previously, all the CEP programs [Comité d’expansion de la participation] targeted secondary school students only. The Committee recognized the need to extend its support to these students. The mentorship program appeared at the right time to fill this important gap,” reveals Nicole Li-Jessen, associate professor and chair of the CEP, which is commissioned by the Office of Social Accountability and Community Engagement of the Faculty of Medicine. and Health Sciences at McGill, whose objective is to promote diversity, inclusiveness and equity, among other things through initiatives that promote access to health studies.
With the support of the President, Shan Wang and Dahlia Thompson, both immigrants to Canada and respectively nursing and doctoral students at the School of Human Communication Sciences, later joined the team. Together, the four founders succeeded in setting up a pilot project last winter with Dawson College by connecting twelve students with six mentors from the University.
Targeting students in general and vocational institutions from Black, Indigenous, rural, LGBTQ2A+ and disadvantaged communities, this initiative seeks to ensure that healthcare graduates are more representative of the different communities they will serve. The MMH program focuses in particular on learning about different areas of health, developing their personal and academic skills and preparing for their transition to university.
Since its launch, the project has been rapidly deployed and, in the fall of 2021, several French-speaking and English-speaking CEGEPs in the province have signed up, such as the Cégep de Shawinigan, the Cégep de Saint-Laurent, the Collège Champlain, the Vanier College and John Abbott College, involving over 50 students. The team is currently working on organizing a careers panel of doctors, nurses and other health professionals and is also planning a conference on financing a university education.
Welcoming the next generation of medical professionals in Montérégie
The Université de Sherbrooke’s medical training program, which has been offered in Saguenay and Moncton since 2006, will also be offered in Longueuil. This new site will allow students to follow the four years of study, although training has been given for several years to the 3and and 4and years of the program at the Integrated Health and Social Services Center of Montérégie-Centre (CISSSMC).
As of fall 2022, the establishment located opposite the Charles-Le Moyne hospital on the territory of the CISSSMC will welcome 24 first-year students. The training, which will take place at the Jean-Marc Lepage pavilion, will ensure a clinical immersion of the students from the beginning of their course. In anticipation of the arrival of new cohorts, renovations are planned to create spaces for teaching, living and clinical simulation.
“This decentralized training approach has proven its worth with us and demonstrates the willingness of the partners involved to innovate together and get closer to the communities in which we operate. It is our social responsibility to get involved in order to meet the health needs of the population,” indicated Dominique Dorion, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke.
This relocation to Montérégie will contribute to the attraction and retention of physicians in order to respond to the region’s labor shortage and will contribute to the accessibility and development of services as well as the improvement of quality of care. The initiative also contributes to the government’s objective of increasing the number of admissions to medical programs.
A new program to increase the skilled workforce
Next fall, the Université du Québec à Montréal will offer a specialized graduate degree in life sciences and biopharmaceuticals, in partnership with the departments of chemistry and biological sciences, whose creation project was piloted by the Professor Benoît Barbeau, from the Department of Biological Sciences.
This program was designed to meet the current needs of industries in the life sciences and health technologies (LSHT) sector, which has been booming for several years and which includes sub-sectors such as innovative pharmaceuticals, medical and health technologies as well as health information technologies and artificial intelligence.
According to a study by the Montreal InVivo group, a non-profit organization that designates the LSHT cluster in Greater Montreal, industries believe, among other things, that bachelor’s and master’s studies lead graduates more to a university career than to the job market. job. The objective of this DESS is to increase the qualified workforce in areas of importance such as the development of drugs and vaccines and personalized health care.
This short multidisciplinary training will allow students to be exposed to the most recent technologies and expertise in the field, to improve their conditions in the job search by acquiring transversal skills surrounding management, ethics and regulations, as well as to participate scientific innovation and business growth in Quebec.