This semester has been a significant adjustment for me. Starting my Master's degree in the middle of a pandemic while working full time at an organization that is significantly impacted by the pandemic, causing me to work extra hours, has been challenging. Still, it has also been a fantastic learning experience. Throughout this course, Critical Foundations in Health Systems, I have explored various aspects of Canada's health system. I have also learned more about my career and how my organization impacts the health system and people within it.
During the first couple of weeks of the course, we explored digital identity and how it is essential to keep up a digital identity and be mindful of what you post. I thoroughly enjoyed this topic as it was introduced after the riots at the capitol building in the United States. Many people were losing their jobs after posting on social media about attending the riot. For example, a nurse in Ontario was terminated after speaking at an anti-mask rally in D.C on the riot's day (Perkel, 2021). This story helped to emphasize that you are always representing the organization that you work for, even when you are not at work. This topic helped me to realize that I am accountable for everything I do and need to make sure my digital identity reflects who I am, but also represents the organization I are responsible to which was something I kept in mind while creating my e-portfolio.
After exploring digital identity, we began looking into federal and provincial health systems within Canada. I was able to explore my role within Canada's health system and compare it with my classmates. I have found that although my part in the system is essential, many of my classmates have more conventional roles within Canada's healthcare system, such as nurses, and dieticians so it was interesting to compare our different roles in a blog post that I wrote and how we might work together (Solomon, R., 2021).
In the next unit, we explored what health means and how it is and should be defined. It was pretty challenging to find sources that, in my opinion, had a good definition of health. The World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health seemed to leave most of the population deemed unhealthy (Solomon, R., 2021). Health isn't simply to the absence of disease or complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing as the WHO would describe it, but it is much more than that (Solomon, R., 2021). During this unit, I had the opportunity to write a blog post on the definition of health, and as we have gone through this course and explored different determinants of health, I stand by my post. During this unit, we also looked into social determinants of health, one of my favorite topics. While looking for resources on this topic, I noticed a considerable lack of work Canada is doing to improve social determinants of health. They play such a prominent role in the Canadian Healthcare system, so I was disappointed to see the lack of effort toward improving certain areas such as housing and job security (Government of Canada, 2020).
Playing off social determinants of health, we began looking into the multiple levels of influence on health. While exploring this topic, I managed to find a great video that explains influences on a person's wellbeing in an easy to understand and straightforward way—link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRMQ7GeUWPY (Project School Wellness, 2020).
After looking at the levels of influence, we began looking at health models. Health models are great to apply to certain areas within health, such as a chronic disease to help determine the best methods for prevention and treatment. I used the Social Ecological Model to determine how type 2 diabetes could be better prevented, and treatment could be more effective (Solomon, R., 2021). The Social-Ecological Model uses levels of influence within a person's life to determine why and how they may be at risk for certain things; for example, the Centers for Disease Control uses the Social Ecological Model to determine if a person may be at risk for violence and how they can be protected from it (Centers for Disease Control, 2021). Using the levels of influence in a person's life, including social determinants of health to identify their risk and provide resources for prevention and treatment, is a fantastic way to improve health within a population.
Following this, we looked into chronic diseases and their surveillance, management, funding, and primary determinants. As I am located in Ontario, I found it very interesting to read through my classmate's posts and see the differences between the provinces and how they deal with chronic diseases. Overall, it seems like more effort should be put into managing these diseases as everyone is responsible for their management, which can lead to more resources being used by certain people who are not adequately driving their chronic conditions (Public Health Ontario, 2017).
In the final parts of the course, we looked into vulnerable populations, including indigenous communities, which made me look into my organization and treatment of vulnerable populations. This topic helped me realize that there was a severe lack of outreach to these populations, which I could share with my director. We are now making advances towards including indigenous people in our recruitment efforts, with our first step being hiring an expert from the indigenous community. Overall, this topic opened my eyes to the gaps within healthcare and my organization.
Finally, we began exploring the future of healthcare. I believe the future of healthcare greatly relies on further technological advancement. During this current pandemic, we have been able to do amazing things with technology to continue to deliver proper healthcare safely. I believe these advancements will continue to push Canada forward to improve patient treatment.
Overall, I have learned a lot this semester and have thoroughly enjoyed this course. I am excited to take my learnings and new digital identity with me as I continue to advance my career within the healthcare community.
References
Centers for Disease Control. (2021). The Social-Ecological Model: A Framework for Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/about/social-ecologicalmodel.html
Government of Canada (2020). Social determinants of health and health inequalities. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/population-health/what-determines-health.html
Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (Public Health Ontario). Snapshots: Chronic Disease Incidence and Prevalence Snapshot: prevalence of asthma–age standardized rate (both sexes) 2017 [Internet]. Toronto, ON: Queen’s Printer for Ontario; c2020 [cited 2020 Apr 30]. Available from: http://https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/data-and-analysis/chronic-disease/chronic-diseaseincidence-prevalence
Perkel, C. (2021). Ontario nurse fired after speaking at D.C. anti-lockdown rally on day of Capitol riot. CP24. Retrieved from: https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-nurse-fired-after-speaking-at-d-c-anti-lockdown-rally-on-day-of-capitol-riot-1.5274002?cache=%3FclipId%3D89619%3FclipId%3D89563
Project School Wellness. (2020, September 3) Health Education Skills 101: Analyzing Influences. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRMQ7GeUWPY
Solomon, R. (2021) How a Model can Prevent Diabetes (and I'm not talking about the Instagram kind) Retrieved from https://rsolomon10.wixsite.com/rachelsolo/post/how-a-model-can-prevent-diabetes-and-i-m-not-talking-about-the-instagram-kind
Solomon, R. (2021). My Role in the Canadian Healthcare System [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://rsolomon10.wixsite.com/rachelsolo/post/using-technology-to-engage-youth-with-research
Solomon, R. (2021). What is Health? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://rsolomon10.wixsite.com/rachelsolo/post/what-is-health
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