Monique West

Simulation Administrative Assistant
250-519-7700 ext. 13432
cicsl@islandhealth.ca

Monique West is a versatile professional with a diverse background in administration, healthcare, and humanitarian work. Born in California and raised in North Carolina, she brings a multicultural perspective to her work. Fluent in Spanish, English, and Mandarin Chinese, Monique is dedicated to supporting diverse communities in Canada. Holding a bachelor’s degree in psychology, she has made meaningful contributions to various sectors.

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Dr. Lauren Kitney

Course Director, Clinical Skills
csdir@uvic.ca

Dr. Lauren Kitney received her medical degree from the University of Alberta and completed her training in pediatrics at the University of Toronto / The Hospital for Sick Children. She works as a consultant general pediatrician, seeing children – from from newborns to adolescents – with a wide range of medical and developmental problems. Her clinical practice includes hospital work at Victoria General Hospital and a consulting office practice. Dr. Kitney is the Island Medical Program’s Director of Clinical Skills and is the workplace-based assessment lead for the MD Undergraduate Program at UBC.

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Creating Brave Spaces for Learning

Audi has a unique and vital role at the IMP. As a Clinical Teaching Associate (CTA), he is both an instructor and a patient to IMP medical students.

Audi and his fellow CTAs use their own bodies to teach students how to perform sensitive physical examinations – such as chest, gynecological, and urogenital exams – in a safe and respectful way. As CTAs are usually community members trained for the role, their lessons also provide a distinct patient-centred focus to medical education.

“The IMP and its Patient Program are so grateful to CTAs like Audi,” says Sammie Gough, Patient Program Coordinator. “They help students develop respectful and inclusive ways to communicate, as well as share techniques to ensure a safe and comfortable experience for future patients.”

We sat down with Audi to ask him about his time as a CTA and how he creates inclusive learning spaces where consent, curiosity, and personal experience are acknowledged and valued.

Hi! Could you introduce yourself?
Hi! I’m Audi, and I am a queer, transgender nursing student and harm reduction worker. I am a settler of English, Irish, and Danish ancestry, raised here on lək̓ʷəŋən territories / Victoria.

How long have you been a CTA?
Nine months.

What originally inspired you to join the CTA program?
I chose to become a CTA because I wanted to be a part of the hands-on learning process with medical students. I’m passionate about facilitating a brave space where students can not only be curious, ask questions, and integrate their knowledge with a trans patient present, but they can do so in a way where way where my consent and lived experience are valued and respected.

What unique perspectives and experiences are you able to share with medical students?
As a nursing student, I know what it is like to be on the other side of the table as a healthcare professional. As a patient, I also know what it is like to experience a lack of trans-literate, trauma-informed care. I believe these have made me effective at teaching and engaging with students in a way that showcases trans bodies as healthy and normal while also holding space for how complex it can be to be, well, a healthcare student!

CTAs use their own bodies to teach students how to perform sensitive exams. Why do you think it’s important to combine the role of teacher and patient?
Combining the role of teacher and patient is a way to explicitly illustrate how important the patient-provider relationship is in creating positive health outcomes. In short, patients are our best teachers because they each have their own experiences, goals, and needs that we as healthcare providers need to know. It really emphasizes the importance of patient-centered care.

What motivates you to continue participating in the program?
The difference I can make in providers’ approaches to care. I have been able to share my experience and healthcare journey as a queer and trans person, and I can see how important this is to medical students who may have never met someone like me before as a patient.

Do you have any particular memories of your time as a CTA that you’d like to share?
One of the first times I worked with the medical students, I was invited by the supervising physician to speak to the group about gender-neutral language for the body. At the end of session, the physician thanked me for being so open about the topic because they wanted to ensure their students knew how to be inclusive but had never learned the appropriate language themselves. I still think about how transformative that day was for me, and it was all because an experienced physician felt comfortable enough to identify their gap in knowledge while ensuring their students had the opportunity to learn.

What advice would you give to anyone thinking of becoming a CTA?
If you feel comfortable with your body and have a passion for engaging in a teaching role, this is for you. If you’re unsure, reach out! Sammie is an amazing coordinator, as are the other staff, and they can help you figure out if this is the right role for you.

The CTA program is currently accepting applications for new participants. For more information about this opportunity, visit the IMP website or contact Sammie Gough at patientprograms@uvic.ca.

Benefits of a student-led virtual Mini Med School

The 2021 – 2022 Island Medical Program (IMP) Mini Med School (MMS) series looked a little different from the norm. Unlike typical MMS events, which university faculty deliver in-person, medical students from the IMP and Vancouver Fraser Medical Program (VFMP) led these sessions online.

Nicole Cameron and Drew Smith (IMP Class of 2024) and Julia De Pieri (VFMP Class of 2024) delivered nine virtual lectures on topics ranging from interpreting test results to diets to stress management. They also asked participants to complete an optional survey about the sessions. Nicole, Drew, and Julia have since translated that data and published their findings in “Mini Med School: why you should try a virtual, medical student-led program” in the You Should Try This section of the Canadian Medical Education Journal.

L-R: Drew Smith and Nicole Cameron (IMP Class of 2024) and Julia De Pieri (VFMP Class of 2024)

Of those who participated in the survey, 90.3% said they enjoyed having students deliver the seminars and 90.9% said they enjoyed being part of the training of medical students.

“Based on my own personal experiences in medical school, I have found the public tends to be quite receptive to having students involved in their care and to helping us learn,” says Drew. “Therefore, it was not surprising to me that the majority of our survey participants enjoyed having us deliver the seminars, enjoyed being a part of our medical training, and would recommend the program to friends.”

Julia also says the fact students tend to use simpler language when explaining medical terminology probably added to the appeal. “I think [the participants] appreciated this as it allowed them to take away more from the talks,” she says.

The students wrote that they benefitted from the experience as well. “We found this to be a great way to further develop our medical communication skills and connect with our communities in a time of social isolation,” says Nicole. “So, it was wonderful to see through this study that the participants also enjoyed and found benefit from the program.”

Nicole, Drew, and Julia also found 63.6% of survey participants said they enjoyed the virtual format. “I think participants enjoyed the virtual aspect as these presentations took place during the peaks of COVID and this allowed them to participate in our talks without feeling like they were putting their health at risk,” explains Julia. She adds that the format allowed people living outside of Victoria to easily access the sessions.

The students say that technology didn’t seem to be a barrier to participation. In fact, they argue that a virtual format has potential to reach isolated or marginalized populations and reduce barriers to accessing accurate health information.

“I was slightly surprised by the fact that the majority of survey respondents would prefer future seminars to be virtual,” says Drew. “I know I am not alone in having Zoom fatigue at this point, so I assumed our respondents would be more eager to have future seminars in-person, or at least a combination of virtual and in-person, despite the benefits of the virtual format.”

Still, the authors suggest considering a combination of in-person and virtual delivery post-pandemic. They also suggest that while students should continue delivering the MMS seminars, host institutions should consider adding a practicing physician presenter as most survey respondents indicated they would enjoy this option.

“I was also not surprised to see the majority would like to hear from practicing clinicians as well,” says Drew. “I believe in general people tend to appreciate input from those with more knowledge and experience around any given topic.”

“Overall, we hope the results of our study will spark the conversation for other medical schools to consider trying a student-led MMS in their community,” says Nicole. “Medical student-led MMS creates a unique opportunity for community members to connect and engage with the education of medical students in the communities they will likely return to serve as physicians.”

Nicole, Drew, and Julia hosted the IMP MMS as part of their FLEX project. Their supervisor Dr. Jane Gair has recordings of all nine sessions on her website. To access, follow the link and click Student Presentations > 2021 – 2022 Presentations.

Papapalooza event provides free pap tests in Victoria

Pap tests are an essential part of preventative healthcare for anyone with a cervix, but not everyone has access to them. Barriers can include not having a family doctor, feeling uncomfortable receiving a pap test from one’s regular provider, lacking knowledge around the procedure, and not being able to access inclusive care.

To help address this lack of access, Anika Brown (IMP Class of 2024) and Marie Schulze (IMP Class of 2025) are part of a provincial team of UBC medical students organizing free cervical cancer screening events – called Papapalooza – across BC.

“We wanted to host events that would directly benefit the health of our communities on a population level,” says Anika, who is one of two provincial leads for Papapalooza. “We both feel really passionate about increasing access to this essential screening practice in a safe and welcoming way. People delay pap tests for numerous reasons, including ongoing impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and the primary care shortage. If we can eliminate some of those barriers and screen individuals who may otherwise not participate in screening, then we will have accomplished our goal.”

Anika Brown (IMP Class of 2024)

All Papapalooza events will offer a safe environment for anyone with a cervix to participate. The organizers hope this will make the events more accessible, as well as increase everyone’s comfortability with the procedure so they can become lifelong champions of engaging in preventative health screenings.

The team is modelling their events after the original Papapalooza, which Nanaimo-based family physician Dr. Christine Layton and OB/GYN Dr. Kristi Kyle began in 2020. Dr. Layton and Dr. Kyle have hosted five events in Nanaimo so far and have screened more than 300 patients.

“My colleague Alisha Hussey (VFMP Class of 2024) and I, who were co-leads of the UBC Public Health Club at the time, saw a post about the original Papapalooza on Instagram last year and reached out to the founders,” explains Anika. “They were thrilled to have interest in the event and they have really supported us in expanding this initiative provincially.”

Marie Schulze (IMP Class of 2025)

Anika and Alisha, who is the second Papapalooza provincial lead, received a grant from the Canadian Federation of Medical Students to help bring the screening events to Victoria, Vancouver, Kelowna, and Prince George. They also gathered a team of fellow MD students to act as site leads in each community. “I immediately thought of Marie for Victoria,” says Anika. “I knew she is passionate about this type of work and is extremely motivated and diligent.”

Marie took on the role and connected with Victoria-based family physician Dr. Laura Birdsell to organize their Papapalooza. The Victoria event will take place at the Vancouver lsland Women’s Clinic on Saturday, April 15. Dr. Birdsell and a couple other physicians will perform the approximately 110 screenings, while a crew of 15 IMP students will help run the event by greeting patients, assisting the MOAs, turning over exam rooms, and more.

Anika says they fully booked the Victoria event less than 24 hours after announcing it on Instagram. She says they hope to host additional local clinics in the future for those who were not able to secure a spot. In the meantime, the organizers have posted educational resources and links on their Instagram page to help people find a pap test provider in BC.

Dates, locations, and registration information for Papapalooza events in Kelowna, Prince George, and Vancouver will be also announced on the Instagram page in the near future.

Island-focused Medical Conference Returning to Victoria this June

The Island Medicine Conference will return to Victoria for its second year on June 2 – 3, 2023.

This event provides Island frontline healthcare workers the opportunity to hear from local experts on topics seen every day in practice, as well as make connections with fellow providers from across the area.

“Last year’s conference was a great success,” says Dr. Chris Morrow, conference chair and director of the Island Medical Program’s Physician Education Program. “It was fantastic to be together, building those professional and personal connections while taking part in important, relevant, and impactful updates.”

The first day of the Island Medicine Conference 2023, which will take place at the Victoria Conference Centre, will include a mix of plenary, breakouts, and panel discussions. Topics covered include trauma-informed care, pediatric ADHD and depression, women’s health, artificial intelligence, alcohol use disorder management, wilderness medicine, and more. There will also be a reception and networking party after the sessions for attendees to catch up with their colleagues.

The second day will focus on small-group, hands-on skills workshops hosted at the Centre for Interprofessional Clinical Simulation Learning at Royal Jubilee Hospital. Topics including ultrasound, trigger finger injections, contraceptive devices, responding to opioid toxicity, skin procedures, and more.

“The skills day was a hit last year,” says Dr. Morrow. “Participants loved learning or updating skills in a fun and supportive environment. This year will be even better.”

The Island Medicine Conference 2023 is open to all healthcare professionals. However, please note the content is geared toward family physicians, emergency physicians, hospitalists, geriatricians, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, nurses, residents, and medical students. Attendees can earn up to 10.5 MOC Section 1 / Mainpro+ credits.

Costs to attend vary, and there is an Early Bird discount until May 2, 2023. To register and for more information—including a full list of topics and speakers, costs, accommodation options, and more—please visit the conference’s website.

Item Drive Supports People with Period Poverty

May 1, 2023: Donation drive update at bottom of story

Karen Jiang (IMP Class of 2025) and Lauren Yearwood (IMP Class of 2026) are asking for your help in supporting people affected by period poverty. As members of the Community Women’s Initiative (CWI), they have set up a donation drive to gather menstrual products and other hygiene items for women’s shelters, transition homes, and organizations in Victoria.

Lauren Yearwood (left) and Karen Jiang are collecting menstrual products and other hygiene items for local organizations.

Period poverty is the inadequate access to menstrual products. It’s a serious and prevalent problem around the world, including in Canada. Research conducted by Plan International Canada in 2019 found that, nationwide, about 34 per cent of people with uteruses struggle to afford menstrual products for themselves or their dependents, often needing to make budget sacrifices to afford products.

Lauren and Karen say that lack of access can force people to resort to unhygienic practices, such as using products for extended times or using non-menstrual products as replacements, thus increasing the risk of severe complications and infections.

Menstrual products are some of the most requested items at shelters, yet despite their importance, they are often the least donated items.

The main items Karen and Lauren hope to collect through their donation drive are menstrual products like pads, tampons, and reusable items such as menstrual cups. They welcome both individual items and packages. They are also collecting other items highly requested at shelters and transition homes, including travel-sized toiletries, nail clippers, towels and cloths of all sizes, incontinence pull ups, undergarments, socks, and pajamas. All items will be donated to local organizations, including Margaret Laurence House, Our Place, Cridge Transition House for Women, and Sandy Merriman House.

Item Drive boxes like these will remain at more than 15 locations around Victoria until at least March 31.

The drive’s 15+ donation boxes can be found at several Discovery Coffee, Habit Coffee, The Lab, and Kharma Salon locations, as well as Yoga Bar, Vancouver Island Women’s Clinic, Lagree West, Forge Training, and Thirdspace Movement. The boxes will be out until at least March 31, but they may be out longer if all goes well. Monetary donations can also be made through the CWI’s GoFundMe campaign.

This is the first CWI donation drive hosted in Victoria, but it is not the first community work done by the group this year. The CWI, which is run by UBC medical students from across the province, has raised over $2,500 for organizations throughout BC and has hosted three other item drives over the past three years. The latest drive raised over $500 and 90 boxes of item donations, which were distributed across the lower mainland. Karen and Lauren say they hope the Victoria drive is as successful.

Along with fundraising and drives, the CWI also works to raise awareness about women’s issues by creating accessible and informative infographics on social media and to empower women by hosting educational workshops and tutoring for people in shelters and recovery homes.

Update

Karen and Lauren collected donations until the last week of April. In two months, they collected 24 boxes of donations—including 11 boxes of menstrual products, five boxes of toiletries, and five boxes of clothing, undergarments, and towels. They donated the items to the Cridge Transition House for Women, Victoria Immigrant & Refugee Society, Sandy Merriman House, Our Place Society, and Greater Victoria Women’s Shelter Society (Margaret Laurence House). They were also able to give monetary donations to some of these organizations through the ongoing fundraising efforts of the CWI.

“We are so, so grateful and in awe of the generosity and kindness of the Victoria community,” says Karen. “Seeing the great reception to our initiative and collecting all the donations made our hearts so warm. Period poverty is such an important cause that we wanted to support, so we are beyond excited to see that it is a cause important to our community as well. We want to express our immense gratitude to the community for supporting our drive, and we want to especially thank the local businesses that hosted our collection boxes.”

The success of this drive encouraged the CWI to organize a similar menstrual product drive in Vancouver, which is currently ongoing. As for Victoria, they are excited to host this drive again next year and to organize other fundraising events in fall 2023.

Free CPR Training for Rural Vancouver Island Secondary Students

When volunteering as a first responder in her remote hometown of North Shuswap during a major heatwave, Simona Bene Watts (IMP Class of 2024) noticed something worrying: bystanders were often not performing CPR on cardiac arrest patients by the time she and other first responders arrived.

An estimated 35,000 cardiac arrests occur in Canada each year and a majority of those happen outside of a hospital. According to the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada, less than 10 per cent of people who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest live. However, survival rates double if someone receives CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) treatment, and people who get help earlier have the best chance of survival and a functional recovery.

Still, many rural and remote communities experience long wait times for emergency health services, which results in worse cardiac arrest outcomes compared to their urban counterparts. This makes having bystanders who know how to perform CPR and use an AED in these communities vital.

Lack of training is often a reason why bystanders do not carry out these live-saving tasks. “In the weeks following the heatwave, I reflected on the situation and the barriers for rural community members to receive CPR training,” Simona says. “CPR is not part of the BC secondary school curriculum. To seek training, individuals have to pay out of a pocket and often have to travel more than an hour to attend a CPR course.”

As she began looking for solutions, Simona recognized she had resources she could mobilize. “I was surrounded by a group of knowledgeable medical students who would make excellent CPR instructors, as well as by medical training equipment located at Island Health’s Centre for Interprofessional Clinical Simulation Learning (CICSL), the Heart & Stroke Foundation, and St. John Ambulance that we could borrow to make a uniquely low-cost course for rural and remote communities,” she explains. “From this, the idea of the Rural CPR Outreach Project (RCOP) was born!”

(L-R) Simona Bene Watts, Nick Wilson, Erin McDonagh, and Wesley Richardson on their 2022 RCOP tour.

After securing sponsors to cover their course, equipment, and travel costs, the RCOP team – Simona, Erin McDonagh, Wesley Richardson, and Nick Wilson (all IMP Class of 2024) – headed up Island in 2022. They taught the Heart & Stroke Foundation Hands-only CPR training guidelines to more than 300 students in Sooke, Campbell River, Port McNeil, and Port Hardy during the project’s first year.

As the RCOP is a FLEX project, supervised by UBC clinical professor Dr. Kevin Shi, the IMP facilitators also gave their students pre- and post-course surveys to help them evaluate the effectiveness of the program. They found that students’ CPR knowledge improved from 48 to 90 per cent and that students’ perceived comfort performing CPR improved from 40 to 85 per cent.

Nick helps students with compressions and AED placement.

“Not only are we equipping youth with life-savings skills, but we are also offering them an opportunity to interact with medical students face-to-face and learn more about medical education and health professions,” adds Simona. “It’s no secret Canada needs more doctors, especially in rural and remote regions, and we believe that empowering youth to pursue a career in medicine starts with exposure to medical experiences like our course. In addition, many of our RCOP team members are from rural and remote communities themselves and they believe that if they had had the opportunity to meet and create mentorship connections with medical students, it would have eased their own path to medical school and would have encouraged others to pursue such a career.”

After last year’s success, the RCOP team is excited for its second year of workshops to start this April. The tentative 2023 itinerary includes visits to Sooke, Salt Spring Island, Ucluelet, Campbell River, Quadra Island, Port Hardy, Port McNeill, and Powell River.

Simona sits with equipment.

Simona says they are also already looking to the future of the program. The team has expanded to include eight IMP students, spanning Years 1 – 3, and it has an active mentorship progression in place so students at the beginning of their medical training will learn the skills needed to carry on the project for years to come. New members Alison White, Jocey Terwoord, Margot Schmidt (all IMP Class of 2025), and Ethan Schovanek (IMP Class of 2026) will take on the role of teaching classes this year. Simona says the team would also like to expand the program to even more communities around Vancouver Island and plan to apply for the BC Ferries Community Travel Support Application to reach some of these more remote communities. They are also discussing the possibility of adding Naloxone overdose response training to the program. “We will provide a brief overview of the theory of how to use Naloxone and where to access Naloxone kits in the community,” she says. “But we are taking time to research how to teach this skill effectively and as safely as possible.”

Students at the Southern Medical Program and Northern Medical Program have also expressed interest in expanding the RCOP to their regions in upcoming years.

The IMP RCOP team would like to thank its sponsors over the past two years: the Island Medical Program, CICSL, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, Victoria St. John Ambulance, and the Rural Health Services Research Network.

Clinical Skills Tutors Recognized with Award

Drs. Daniel Boston and Brendan Peddle Boston were selected as the Year 1 / 2 Clinical Skills Tutors of the Term for Fall 2022.

Students in the IMP Class of 2025 and Class of 2026 were asked to nominate extraordinary tutors from their Clinical Skills sessions for this new initiative. These are tutors who made a positive impact on student learning and who the students felt were deserving of recognition.

The Class of 2025 noted that Dr. Boston created a comfortable learning environment and took the time to address any of their concerns. He demonstrated the importance of the bigger picture in medicine.

The Class of 2026 noted that Dr. Peddle is organized, calm, and kind. He showed patience, empathy, and care in delivering sessions to students, taking the time to explain material and ensuring there was plenty of time for questions.

Thank you, Drs. Boston and Peddle, for having such a positive influence on our students’ learning.

Promoting Health and Community through Soccer

Having played soccer his whole life, Lyndon Rebello (IMP Class of 2026) didn’t want to give up the sport when he entered medical school. So, he began volunteering with the Vancouver Street Soccer League (VSSL). We caught up with Lyndon to learn more about this experience and how it makes soccer more than just a game.

What drew you to the VSSL?

I have always had a passion for soccer, and I was privileged enough to have an opportunity to pursue this passion from youth to university. When I got into medical school, I was not ready to give up playing the sport. So, I checked the UBC MD Undergraduate Program’s club site and came across the VSSL. While there were other opportunities to get involved in soccer, volunteering with the VSSL would allow me to enjoy playing soccer while using the game as a medium to offer a sense of togetherness, community, and inclusivity to members of the Downtown East Side (DTES). In the future, I hope to dedicate a significant portion of my practice to removing barriers and providing aid to marginalized members of vulnerable groups like those residing in the DTES. Therefore, it was a no-brainer for me to get involved in VSSL; I’m forming habits and gaining experience that I know will help me to do just that. It’s one of the reasons I’m still volunteering nearly a year later, even though I now live in Victoria and have to take the ferry over for sessions.

Tell us a bit more about the organization.

VSSL is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization that aims to use soccer as a medium to foster a sense of inclusivity, especially for those dealing with homelessness, marginalization, and addiction. It reaches out to individuals who have been homeless, are currently homeless, or are at risk of homelessness, as well as individuals who feel marginalized within their communities or are recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. The VSSL hosts weekly practices every Sunday morning at a local field in the heart of the DTES, as well as provides lunch following these sessions. Additionally, the organization collaborates with a local nurse to provide elective COVID-19 vaccines to any player who wants them.

What is your role?

I occupy two roles with VSSL. Outside the field, I communicate with other UBC medical students who volunteer and remind them when we have our monthly session with the organization. Most of these other medical students are from the Vancouver site, but I would love to get a group of IMP students out for a session. I’d like to coordinate a trip where we can travel and participate together.

I also take some time at the beginning of the school year to apply for funding from the university so that we can provide VSSL players with warm lunches and beverages at some of our sessions.

On the field, I help facilitate a sense of inclusivity, inviting players to join in who may be playing alone. I also try to boost the players’ confidence by celebrating their efforts and encouraging them when they make mistakes – after all, it’s part of the game!

Does your volunteer work positively affect the health of the players?

Sports have an inherent aspect of wellness built into them. In addition providing members with the physical and mental health benefits of exercise, our club fosters strong social health through teamwork and community-building. I think the post-game meals are especially important. These meals bring people together in a positive space where they can create connections and inspire a feeling of cohesion that elevates everyone’s mental and physical well-being. Some members of this league have even felt connected and comfortable enough to open up to me about their health (as a peer and friend, of course, not as a medical student).

Why do you think some players open up to you about their health?

I think it’s the sense of community and trust that is built up over time through our shared interest in soccer and our repeated weekly meetings that allow some players to eventually feel comfortable enough to talk about their health. It has been a tremendous privilege to hear their stories, knowing that they have shared something so close to them and trust me to be someone they can confide in as a friend. While soccer has been of the utmost fun, connections made off the field like this have significantly impacted my life and my perspective on how I can best serve others in the future.

Anything else you’d like to share?

To me, there are so many mediums one can use to connect with people. As future physicians, it is vital that we learn to form good, respectful, and meaningful connections; otherwise, our future patients will not feel comfortable in our care. These deep connections cannot be made through a simple two-minute conversation. I’m sharing my involvement with the VSSL to hopefully show other future healthcare professionals that connections can be made in so many different ways. I want to encourage them to be creative when thinking of new ways to better connect to their future patients so they can provide better care for them.