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| Volume 11, Number 16 | April 16, 2004 |
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McMaster offers new Aboriginal health classHAMILTON, Ont. – Medical students at McMaster University have just finished the first year of an in-depth course being called the first of its kind in Canada. Canadian Press reported April 10 that last fall, McMaster launched a five-month Aboriginal health elective created by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal medical students and faculty. Third-year student Todd Young said he saw the need for such a course through his years working as an outpost nurse in Aboriginal communities and through research he conducted with fellow students. "We looked at undergraduate medical programs – there are 16 in Canada – and we looked at various aspects of Aboriginal issues throughout all those programs," Young said. CP reported that the group found that about 75 per cent of Canada's medical school programs offered a couple of lectures or clinical placements, but "none of them had a formal Aboriginal health elective that used all the tools of learning to instruct their medical students," Young said. "So this is unique in that it brings together experts in a lecture format, it provides problem-based learning, it involves community visits to local health clinics, as well as to Six Nations (Aboriginal community)." Young said the 30 students enrolled in the course also met both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal health-care workers who have worked in native communities for years. Young said McMaster's Aboriginal course aims to meet three key needs: "The first need is most importantly to meet the needs of Aboriginal people and communities in Canada," Young said. The second is to fulfil the educational needs of medical students. "And part of that education is to have the tools to become sensitive, culturally competent health-care providers," he said. Lastly, the course wants to meet the obligation of social accountability to Canada's Aboriginal people.
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