(Published with permission from Elizabeth Fry New Brunswick)
Pictured above: Medical students Eva Bandyayera, Fareeha Quayyum, and Kenzie Moore Nurse Practitioner Caitlin Lynch Dr. Madison Borsella (family medicine resident)
We are so very honored to be part of a great project being done through local Dalhousie Medical Students and some local medical professionals – a family medicine resident and a local Nurse Practitioner.
A few months ago three med students (Eva, Fareeha, and Mackenzie) came and interviewed residents about their experiences in the medical field. What they expected to hear and what they heard were a little different.
They expected to hear about being overlooked, talked down to or disregarded during active addiction or being homeless. What they heard was stories of being ignored, left in bathrooms, being told they are a drain on the system with one solution to fix it, about leaving custody without access to critical medication refills. They heard about nurses who bent rules to provide dignity, who went beyond their role and provided in home checks to people discharged ahead of schedule and struggling, about doctors who did check in or who treated them like part of their health team. They got both sides, and in all of it they heard the recognition that even when they had negative experiences they recognized it wasn’t always personal – it’s symptoms of a system that is strained and filled with imperfect people doing their best.
The goal? These amazing students and professionals are working to take the learnings and data from these focus groups to create meaningful trauma informed care training or education for medical professionals.
If you change the way you look at things the things you look at will change.
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