Looking back on successful NICHE conference
Last October, the third Northern Interprofessional Collaborative for Health Education (NICHE) Conference was held in North Bay, Ontario. NICHE is a forum for educational partners throughout northern Ontario who are interested in advancing interprofessional learning, practice and research.
The conference was attended by 60 participants and presenters from colleges and universities as far away as Kenora, Thunder Bay, and Timmins, Ontario.The conference began with a welcome by Nipissing First Nations Elder, Larry McLeod, and a sharing of his perspectives on the gathering in an Indigenous context. McLeod’s prayer for the participants, spoken in his Ojibwe language, helped set a tone of respect and openness to the of sharing ideas and re-imagining of the roles and interactions between health care providers and the recipients of health care in northern communities. Keynote speaker Justine Jecker is a practicing occupational therapist and PhD candidate from Lakehead University. Her address focused on an interprofessional approach to enhancing Indigenous rural healthcare access.
The conference utilized a variety of presentation formats and featured such topics as understanding the experience and approaches to wellness in Nipissing First Nation, opportunities for simulation, collaborations with eCampus Ontario, and organizational approaches to supporting interprofessional learning. Educational leaders, community practitioners and service providers, students and community members took part in this special opportunity to participate in building discussion around the future of Interprofessional Education (IPE) learning in Northern Ontario.
The planning and co-hosting of this interprofessional northern conference demonstrated a strong collaborative effort, led by faculty members Teri-Lynn Christie, Canadore College; Justine Jecker, Northern Ontario School of Medicine; and Steve Cairns Nipissing University. The success of NICHE conferences has been to highlight the strong desire and commitment for advancing IPE health education in northern Ontario. It is an important forum for sharing IPE practices and ideas and celebrating what is happening among multiple partners across a huge geography.