May 1, 2024 — CHES is pleased to announce that it has awarded a $10,000 grant in the inaugural CHES Indigenous Health Professional Education (IHPE) grant to Dr. Rebecca Howse and her research team. Together with Dr. Howse, Drs. Avery Palmer, Amy Beevor-Potts, Saleem Razack, and Rose Hatala, Sarah de Leeuw, and Elder Jean Wasegijig are exploring Indigenous medical learners’ experiences with the CaRMS application process. This important and groundbreaking work has the potential to not only advocate for changes to the application process for Indigenous learners, but ultimately work toward Indigenizing the residency application process to the benefit of all learners.
To date, there is no research exploring the CaRMS experience from a qualitative lens for any medical learner, let alone Indigenous learner – despite Indigenous medical learner’s experiences receiving attention as a national issue in The Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action #23 and #24. Dr. Howse and her team are taking the first step in improving equity within the residency admission process by examining learners’ admissions experiences, through the telling and sharing of stories.
Dr. Howse explains that the project will be undertaken in partnership with the participants, who own the stories they have shared – the study will “bring into relationship researchers and participants to share stories, to co-participate and co-construct, and to think together. The participants and researchers listen deeply to the stories that are shared, paying attention to time, place, and relationship and thus focusing not just on the individual, but the individual in context”.
CHES is proud to support this important work, and wishes to congratulate Dr. Rebecca Howse and research team as the successful recipient of this inaugural CHES IHPE Grant. We hope that by bringing together researchers to examine and disseminate Indigenous experiences and perspectives, the education of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners in our programs and practice settings will be enriched and improved.