I will be the first to admit, I am surprised at the topics that I have chosen to discuss in my final e-portfolio.
If you had asked me on September 7th what health topics I would be writing about, I would have confidently replied that I would be strongly be referencing my professional experiences in the laboratory. After all, that it what I did when I was completing my undergrad in a multi-disciplinary classroom.
It would turn out that for my Masters, at least for the first course, I would rather chime in on the forums on my laboratory experience rather than conduct the extensive laboratory specific research required for detailed assignments. It could be because I’m a bit “Covid-19”-ed out from work. Or, it could be that I have grown as a professional since I completed by undergrad five years ago and have some promotions under my belt.
Instead of focusing on lab science, my interest was taken in by the policy impacts on the health systems. From the determinants of health, understanding multi-level approaches to making good policy decisions, to the policies to prevent chronic disease and protect the most vulnerable – this all meant something. Good policy matters in healthcare.
What I found myself the most passionate about writing about was the failure of some policies. Trying to understand what went wrong, and how to fix or improve them. I ended up suggesting policies to increase Covid-19 testing in the marginalized Roma community both on my blog to my classmates – but also to the decision makers at my organization. (The increased collection rate is going well!)
The blog post that sticks out as my most challenging post to research and write about was the failure of protecting vulnerable seniors in Ontario long term care homes from Covid-19. There are policies in place – why is no one following them? The answer is a theme that I’m sure will keep coming up in my career in healthcare: lack of resources.
In my final assignment and blog post, I discussed the failure of the 2012 change to the Interim Federal Health Program that is supposed to provide healthcare to some of our most vulnerable: refugees. I want to thank Kazeem who I had a good discussion with on the forum for just how much this impacted the chronic health of refugees and I could bring lots of our learned health topics together.
Going forward, I think I have caught the policy bug. Hopefully I am able to continue to use them as tools to do some good in healthcare.