Issue 3: October 2022
Intercultural Competence Workshop
Thirty percent of our physician population in Nova Scotia has training from outside of Canada. This training may vary from accepted Canadian medical standards.
Occasionally, physicians Trained Outside of Canada (PTOCs) are required to undergo College-directed assessment as a requirement of licensure. PTOCs are often assessed by Canadian-trained physicians who have years of experience in the health system and who come with their own unique set of cultural experiences and values. The College aims to apply a culturally safe approach to this work.
On September 23, 2022, the College hosted an intercultural competence workshop for physicians who are engaged by the College as peer reviewers and assessors. The workshop invited participants to place themselves in the shoes of a newcomer to Canada and to imagine the stress they face related to housing, employment, education, healthcare and other fundamental functions of everyday life.
The training also focused on the concepts of explicit versus implicit bias, microaggressions, power and privilege, and intergenerational trauma. This provided an opportunity for participants to understand and reimage the work of assessment through a culturally safe lens.
The workshop is part of a funded series of cultural capacity educational sessions offered by Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS).