Aboriginal health grads are positive role models

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The University of Alberta's Aboriginal Health Careers program is fulfilling a need for more Aboriginal doctors in Canada with the graduation of two medical doctors from the program and the first Aboriginal graduate in the Public Health Sciences this year.

The two MD graduates are John Bradley Davies and Nancy Robson, and Josie Auger is the Public Health Science graduate and is actively working with the Aboriginal Diabetes Wellness Program in Edmonton.

Davies, a Metis man whose family is from the Crane River band in Manitoba, was born and raised in Calgary. He has been a recipient of the Indian and Inuit Health Careers award and a provincial Aboriginal Health Careers Bursary for the past three years. Davies will be practicing family medicine in Calgary.

Robson is a member of the Upper Cayuga band of Six Nations in Ontario. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the provincial Aboriginal Health Careers award and the Canadian Medical Association award for Aboriginal students. Robson will practice family medicine in Edmonton.

Auger is a member of the Bigstone Cree First Nation and is the faculty's first Aboriginal graduate in the Public Health Sciences. In 1997, she presented workshops for the Aboriginal Health lecture series and represented the program at the international diabetes conference in San Diego.

"In the Aboriginal population there is one Aboriginal doctor for every 30,000 Aboriginal people, as compared to one in 500 for the non-Aboriginal population and that is about 10 years ago," said Dr. Malcolm King, professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Alberta. "The numbers have improved a little bit today, there's about one in 20,000, but that's a lot different than the general population."

Dr. King was the recipient of the 1999 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for medicine and is a strong supporter of Aboriginal medical doctors for Aboriginal people.

The differences in culture and sometime the lack of understanding or knowledge of Aboriginal culture can lead to biases that can creep into society and into the medical profession too, said King.

"Part of what we are trying to do is to educate 99 per cent of non-Aboriginal doctors because a lot of Aboriginal people who end up in the hospital do not see an Aboriginal doctor," said King.

Having more Aboriginal doctors who are the primary practitioners in Native communities is the vision of the Aboriginal Health Careers program. The doctor is a well-respected member of the community and why shouldn't that be the case within the Aboriginal communities, said King.

What the statistics mean, in practical terms for Aboriginal people, is that the lack of Aboriginal doctors who are visible as role models to other Aboriginal people plays a big factor in how many Aboriginal people will study to be doctors, said King.

King feels the reason why more Aboriginal people are not doctors is a complicated issue. A key reason is role-modeling. Aboriginal people haven't had the tradition of trained health professionals in Native communities. Most other professions, such as teaching, law and business, are seeing more Aboriginal people.

"If kids don't grow up with a role model that is the doctor, somebody in the white coat who looks different, then they don't think of a doctor as someone they might aspire to be. If they don't see an Aboriginal person as a health professional then they don't see it as being role modeled," said King.

One of the ways the University of Alberta's Aboriginal health program is working to increase the number of Aboriginal doctors who are role models is to promote health careers at the high school level. That promotion needs to go hand-in-hand with the guidance provided in Aboriginal communities at the high school level by counsellors.

Science and engineering, which are related fields to professional health care, are not emphasized in the education system for Aboriginal people, said King. These career pathways ought to be availabl to young Aboriginal people and it is recognizing that there needs to be trained people to teach and encourage Aboriginal people to go on in those areas, said King.

"It even comes down to how Native people make choices," he said.

King remembers going to the grand opening of a middle school in his home reserve. The school had everything to offer the children, but the one thing King noticed was lacking was a lab.

Young Aboriginal people need to be presented with the concept that sciences are a positive option for Aboriginal people, said King. That has to start during the teen years for the students to see the possibilities that a health career has to offer.

It takes at least 10 years before becoming a doctor, said King. First there is about eight years of post-secondary education. That includes a bachelor degree ,which can almost be anything, but has to include chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics, plus statistics and English. At least two years of residency training for family practice and even longer for specialties, said King. Residency trainees are paid.

The rewards are worth the sacrifices. The reward of a health career for Aboriginal people is that ultimately, there is better health for everyone, said King.