Past webinars

In May 2022, Vanessa Weatherbee, a senior consultant with Alberta Health Services (AHS) Medical Affairs and Susan Smith and Alecia Kerber, physician resource planners in the North and South Zone respectively,  joined RhPAP to share their experiences recruiting rural physicians. Explore what rural physician recruitment involves, how AHS determines physician vacancies, how communities are engaged in the hiring process, and what hiring an international medical graduate entails.

Did you know that, in Alberta, human trafficking charges have been laid in rural communities as well as major urban centres? Amanda Warnock, an Anti-Trafficking Education for ACT in Rural and Northern Alberta explores the new programming and initiatives available as of January 2022 to help rural and northern communities learn about, identify, and address human trafficking in rural Alberta.

There are currently 29 health regulatory colleges in Alberta, including the colleges that govern the practice of doctors and nurses, laboratory and x-ray technologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, opticians, and paramedics – to name just a few. Each college is authorized by legislation to regulate their respective health professions and sets standards to ensure that Albertans receive safe, competent, and ethical health services. Colleges have the power to investigate complaints. During this recorded session from February 2022, Dale Cooney, Executive Director of the Alberta Federation of Regulated Health Professions joined us to discuss the regulation of health professionals in Alberta including why colleges exist, how they are run and how they work to protect the public.

Have you thought about or have an interest in becoming a Registered Nurse? Could a Bachelor of Science Nursing Degree be in your future? The Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP) partnered with the University of Alberta, Faculty of Nursing, in May of 2021 to chat about the following:

• What a pathway to becoming a registered nurse could look like
• What’s involved with application process(es)
• What high school students should be considering to support your post-secondary education and career journey aspirations
• What a career as a rural nurse could look like

This virtual conversation included individual experiences, personal journeys, and important information about the pathway to becoming a registered nurse with:
• current University of Alberta BSc Nursing Students who grew up in rural Alberta.
• a new registered nurse practising in rural Alberta.
• University of Alberta Faculty of Nursing Admissions Team Members.

One of Alberta Health Services (AHS) best channels to connect with Albertans is through Advisory Councils. Councils help patients and families contribute to health-care solutions and the betterment of our system, and Albertans can benefit by having their needs reflected in planning and decisions.

There are twelve Health Advisory Councils (HAC’s), four Provincial Advisory Councils (PAC’s) as well as a Wisdom Council to help guide and inform the work that AHS does across the province. Members on these councils represent many different experiences, cultures and ages, and provide critical feedback that informs decisions that affect how Alberta Health Services (AHS) delivers health services and cares for Albertans. The councils help to provide a grassroots perspective and an understanding of the health needs within the communities that they encompass.

In this March 17, 2021 session, Andrea Jackson and Nicole Merrifield from the AHS Community Engagement and External Relations Team explore Health Advisory Councils, the great work that they are doing across rural Alberta, and how you can get involved.

Did you know? The Office of the Alberta Health Advocates strives to empower Albertans to be effective advocates in their own health and health care. It provides support and advocates for a health care system that is responsive and accountable to the people being served.

In October we learned more about the Alberta Health Advocates and how rural Albertans can connect with them and/or access their services.

Did you know? Alberta has 40 primary care networks, most of which are serving rural areas.

​Primary Care Networks (PCNs) bring local physicians and other health care professionals together to provide comprehensive patient care to Albertans. PCNs develop solutions to meet the needs of the local community and their health issues.

In November Roger Osborne, : Senior Consultant & Zone Lead ACTT, Alberta Medical Association, joined us to help us understand more about the role of PCNs in Alberta.  He spoke about why they were created , how they are funded,  and what services they can provide to Albertans.

Did you know? A Nurse Practitioner is a completely independent health professional who can perform a wide range of services, very similar to the care that a family doctor provides?

During this session, Jennifer Mador, Director of Rural Primary care for the Nurse Practitioner Association of Alberta (NPAA) spoke about the role nurse practitioners can play in the primary health care continuum as well as recommendations that the NPAA has made to government in order to improve primary care access to rural Alberta.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) regulates the practice of medicine in Alberta. Specifically, they regulate physicians, surgeons, osteopaths and physician assistants.

Much like a provincial registry’s role to make sure anyone with a driver’s licence is safe to be on the road, CPSA issues practice permits to regulated members, confirming they are professional, ethical and competent, and have the right qualifications, education and experience to provide the highest quality care for patients in our province.

CPSA also manages complaints involving regulated members; supports continuing competency in practice; sets the minimum standards for professional and ethical behaviour for regulated members; and accredits healthcare facilities.

In this recorded session, Members of CPSA’s Executive team shared more about their role in physician recruitment and they discussed how they’re working to accelerate registration for eligible internationally-trained physicians.

Why engage? It’s a simple question, but one that most people don’t spend enough time exploring. Too often, we engage people “because we’re supposed to” rather than “because we absolutely need to.” In this October 2020 workshop, we challenge the status quo and push our thinking outside our comfort zones. Explore the seven foundations for authentic engagement with Liz Weaver, President and Co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute and find out why it’s necessary and how you can critically evaluate why you are engaging and how you can improve.

In the busyness of our day-to-day lives, shuffling between Zoom meetings, it is easy to lose sight of our core purpose and why we do what we do. Need to re-engage, re-energize, and reconnect to the core of your work? Liz Weaver, President and Co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute shares strategies to help you rediscover your core purpose so you can reinvest in what you do and why you’re doing it. (September 2021)

Most of us have hit that point where the old way of doing things are no longer working. When we’re locked on Zoom, how do we engage our communities and attract and retain connections? How can we be creative and do things differently? How can we focus on what’s possible instead of what’s not? Watch as Lisa Attygalle, Consulting Director of Community Engagement at the Tamarack Institute helps us reignite our community engagement strategies for the current times. (April 2021)

Building trust and relationships are critical components of collaboration and connection. In this October 2021 workshop, Liz Weaver, President and CEO of the Tamarack Institute, highlights the five ways to build trust and relationships and helps us understand the mental processes we all go through when joining a collaborative group and how we can work with them to encourage optimal collaboration. Learn simple tools to quickly build trust and connection.

Communities are dynamic and continually changing, and we have had to learn how to navigate new technologies and virtual spaces. In this November 2021 workshop, Lisa Attygalle, Consulting Director of Community Engagement at the Tamarack Institute, provides us with the latest thinking about community engagement and explores how virtual spaces can be innovative and creative. Find the right balance between engaging virtually through technology and meeting face to face. Hybrid engagement experiences is the future and this session will help you learn how to be effective in the hybrid world.

There is a growing understanding that health, social, economic, and environmental challenges are intrinsically linked. It is clear systems are sometimes broken, ignoring the vulnerable puts us all at risk, and pressing, global issues need to be localized. For many individuals and organizations, these complex challenges have often resulted in a lack of clarity in terms of future direction.

This session provided us with 5 key strategies for ensuring future readiness that will assist us in determining what’s next, and what’s best.