While Alberta is often best known for its wealth of natural resources, its greatest resource is not found in the land but on it: its people.
I have lived small-town nearly all of my life, having grown up mostly in rural Alberta. The people I have been privileged enough to meet who enrich their communities in a multitude of ways shaped a solid determination that it would be a small Alberta town in which I wanted to raise my family.
Fortunately, I have been granted that opportunity.
My respect for passionate and hard-working communities deepened when I began working with RhPAP and was welcomed into several small towns eager to showcase what they had to offer.
Now as I reflect over the last 18 months – and especially 2018 – I realize the biggest thing they had to offer was themselves and the heart they put into making their communities better, particularly when it came to rural health.
Rural community is the strength of Alberta.
Without the same access to resources and equipment that many urban centres have at their fingertips, rural communities have to find creative ways to attract the best health care, while overcoming the challenges of distance, location, funding, and staffing. And let me tell you – those communities are moving some proverbial mountains!
My first project with RhPAP took me to the small town of Bruderheim, east of Edmonton, where the Town had pooled its resources to open a clinic in the back of their only pharmacy to bring accessible care to its seniors and young families alike, where traveling to the next town may be prohibitive.
From there, I landed in Thorhild, a hamlet further northeast of Edmonton that had a County staff determined to make things happen. They hired a Nurse Practitioner on a salaried basis, opening a clinic in the County office in a matter of weeks – a timeline the CAO says is akin to “turning things on a dime”.
The M.D. of Smoky River, a couple hours north of Slave Lake, opened wide its doors for nearly two dozen medical students, giving them a weekend of Skills training from suturing to emergency response, casting, IV prep and more. The residents of three communities – Fahler, Donnelly and McLennan –showcased as much of the communities as they could in two days of whirlwind activities.
Claresholm, an hour south of Calgary, brought state-of-the-art bedside ultrasound training via the EDE Course to local and area doctors, and community volunteers showed up in droves as spaces in the model calls filled up in just hours.
… let me tell you – those communities are moving some proverbial mountains!
While the towns were spread apart in distance and each had their own unique needs, their most striking commonality was the diligent community behind each of these achievements. While someone saw a need, it took a whole team of people pulling their weight to see it through.
A special kudos goes out to the attraction and retention committees, the health foundations, the supporting politicians and employees, the volunteers, the headers-up, and the helping hands. As 2019 continues on, keep pushing forward, seeking solutions, and changing the face of rural health care!
Rural community is the strength of Alberta.
- Article by Alicia Fox