Encouraging high school students to explore health-care careers
Toronto Metropolitan University, in collaboration with Peel District School Board (PDSB), launched the groundbreaking Future of Healthcare initiative as a way to encourage young people to consider health-care professions.
Toronto Metropolitan University, in collaboration with Peel District School Board (PDSB), is inspiring the next generation of medical professionals through a community initiative, the Future of Healthcare program.
"When students see themselves represented in health care, they can imagine new career possibilities," said Dr. Teresa Chan, dean, School of Medicine and vice-president, Medical Affairs, TMU.
“We hope that our speaker series with physician and health-care professionals will inspire students from diverse communities to envision the contributions they can make as future health-care leaders.”
With the goal of building much needed primary care and health-care capacity in the Peel Region, the TMU School of Medicine, the Faculty of Community Services (FCS) and TMU’s Student Affairs are taking a broad approach to recruitment. They are developing pathway programs with the PDSB to encourage the next generation of learners to consider health-care careers.
In addition to increasing health-care access, TMU is committed to increasing the representation of equity-deserving groups within the medical field and across allied health-care professions.
The Future of Healthcare is the first program designed to introduce health-care field opportunities to PDSB students from grades 7 to 12. The board serves 148,000 students in 262 schools across Brampton, Caledon, and Mississauga who are racially, culturally and linguistically diverse.
“A key goal of the program is to inspire young people in the Brampton community that are most underrepresented and under-served in health care to think seriously about post-secondary education and potential careers in health care,” said Kiaras Gharabaghi, dean, Faculty of Community Services.
“We want to equip them with access to the role models, mentors, connections, support and information to help them succeed on that path.”
Through the Future of Healthcare pathways programming, students will gain exposure to careers in medicine, nursing, midwifery, dietetics, occupational and public health, social work and more.
Speaker series launch
The Future of Healthcare program comprises three key components: a speaker series, a course offering and experiential learning. The course and experiential elements will be finalized by FCS in the summer, when TMU’s new School of Medicine opens its doors.
The course will be a university credit course focused on health equity and career pathways across multiple health-care professions. FCS will be developing and delivering the course. It will include tours of simulation labs and health-care sites at TMU’s downtown campus and in Brampton.
The Speaker Series launched on Oct. 24, 2024, with the next panel taking place on Feb. 6, 2025.
About 450 students from diverse backgrounds, distinguished health-care professionals and education leaders attended the launch, providing students an opportunity to learn from and make connections with top health-care professionals who reflected the diverse backgrounds and perspectives in the room.
From TMU's School of Medicine, Dr. Trudy McFarlane, Black Health Lead, and Dr. Jamaica Cass, Indigenous Health Lead, participated in the panel, sharing their experiences, and offering perspectives on navigating their academic and career journeys.
TMU panelist Jason King, field education coordinator in the School of Social Work, also shared valuable insights into the health-care field.
A pivotal leader of the program, Lisa Barnoff, Interim vice-dean, community, culture and belonging, School of Medicine and social work professor at TMU delivered opening remarks. Annette Bailey, FCS associate dean and professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, shared closing remarks, and Martina Douglas, director, equity & social accountability in the School of Medicine, acted as moderator.
The keynote address was given by Dr. Dominick Shelton, interim assistant dean, admissions & recruitment, TMU School of Medicine, who grew up in Brampton. Referencing his adolescence in their community, Shelton shared how others enabled him to dream big and shared his pathway into medicine in a way that resonated deeply with students from the area.
The importance of representation in health care
Representation in the medical field is critical and has been shown to improve patient care and outcomes, and reduce health disparities. Having a health care workforce that is reflective of the communities it serves helps to build trust and reduces systemic biases. Such biases have historically contributed to poorer health outcomes for certain groups including racialized groups, Indigenous communities and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals.
"A lot of thought has gone into this program,” said Rashmi Swarup, director of education, Peel District School Board. “Together with TMU, we wanted to address an industry need for talent that reflects the communities they serve, while also exposing students to the diverse range of opportunities in the health-care field. We are excited for the students, their career potential and the contributions they will make in their communities.”
With a growing demand for health-care professionals across Canada, the Future of Healthcare program will inspire today’s PDSB students to dream big. By offering students opportunities to explore health-care careers, the program empowers the next generation to be the health-care leaders of tomorrow and supports a long-term solution to addressing the country's health-care workforce shortage.
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