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Diversity in Health Care Bursary
Jennifer Lane received a 2019 Diversity in Health Care Bursary, funded by the QEII Foundation. Jennifer is pursuing a PhD in nursing, with her research focused on the gap between the health services needed versus the health services offered for 2SLGBTQ populations. QEII Foundation
Supporting diversity in health care Recipient of Diversity in Health Care Bursary working to change the future of health care for 2SLGBTQ community
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By Jenn Coleman-Ford
“Often when people look at me, they don’t see me as diverse. It makes me feel invisible,” says Jennifer Lane. “As a lesbian, stigma is harmful to my existence, but it also gives me a unique platform to speak from.”
Jennifer was one of 25 recipients of the 2019 Diversity in Health Care Bursaries, funded by the QEII Foundation in partnership with the Nova Scotia Health Authority and Community Health Boards.
The Diversity in Health Care Bursaries, at $1,000 each, help make a difference for post-secondary students from diverse backgrounds who are pursuing a career in a healthcare field.
With an increasingly diverse population in Atlantic Canada, there is a need to have accessible health care for all — and accessibility includes having caring healthcare teams that understand different cultures and languages, to provide the best patient care.
“It’s important to us — and to our donors — that the QEII Health Sciences Centre reflects the many communities we serve; to ensure equal opportunity and access to training and education,” says Julie MacKean, vice-president of philanthropy at the QEII Foundation. “We want to help create a future with a vibrant work environment dedicated to improving and, in many cases, saving the lives of patients.”
For Jennifer, this means being part of the change. As a graduate student and registered nurse, her interest lies in shedding a light on the gaps in knowledge that pertain to 2SLGBTQ health concerns.
“It is a great privilege to be able to do the work that I do,” says Jennifer. “And as a nurse, I have a duty to do this work.”
Jennifer is referring to her ongoing work and research as she works toward her PhD in nursing. The lack of knowledge and current training on 2SLGBTQ health is what drives her.
“I have an interest in the gap between the health services needed versus the health services offered for 2SLGBTQ populations,” says Jennifer. “And 2SLGBTQ patients are often expected to close that gap, sometimes missing out on the care they need.” She gives the example of common questions female patients are asked during a health assessment: Are you sexually active? Or is there a chance you could be pregnant?
For lesbians, answering “yes” to being sexually active doesn’t mean they have a risk of pregnancy. The same goes for a trans woman, who can’t get pregnant because she doesn’t have a uterus. The standard method of questioning forces them to reveal a part of their identity or risk not receiving the best care.
“Trans patients are a particularly disadvantaged group because there is very little education done on the impacts of medicalizing trans bodies,” she says. “If a patient wants testosterone treatments and their physician doesn’t know how to prescribe it, where do they go from there?”
As a mental health nurse, who still works casual shifts at the QEII’s Abbie J. Lane building LUXURY RETIREMENT LIVING FROM THE HEART It’s the first time I’ve been recognized for being diverse and, for me, that’s a very powerful acknowledgement. – Jennifer Lane
while pursuing her PhD, Jennifer is focused on the therapeutic relationship with patients and assessing for vulnerabilities. She notes the importance of using neutral language when speaking with patients.
“If I use neutral language, then the patient will use language that reflects their lived reality,” Jennifer says. “I can reflect that language back to them, validating them as a person.”
Part of Jennifer’s research focuses on healthcare professionals understanding their own cultural biases when interacting with someone from a different culture — and what kind of blind spots they may have. These blind spots translate into unmet healthcare needs.
“If I’m not trained to see my blind spots, I don’t know what I’m not seeing and, thus, not addressing,” she says. “It’s really about seeing the whole person.” Jennifer says it’s about teaching healthcare professionals how to be the experts on health, but interacting with patients in a way that the patient feels they are the expert on themselves.
As a course professor in exploratory nursing practice this past semester at Dalhousie University’s School of Nursing, Jennifer was able to teach these skills to her class of 66 students. Having an incredible experience as a new educator, Jennifer says working with the students has been an honour.
“To be in a position when I can influence the way nursing students understand these issues fills me with hope for the future,” she says passionately. “They’ll graduate in May and will go out in the healthcare world with this knowledge. Imagine how many patients they’re going to see throughout their careers.” Jennifer is grateful for receiving the Diversity in Health Care Bursary. Not only is the financial assistance needed and appreciated, but it’s an important step in the progression of health care in Nova Scotia.
“I think NSHA and the QEII Foundation are doing something very important with this diversity bursary,” says Jennifer. “It’s the first time I’ve been recognized for being diverse and, for me, that’s a very powerful acknowledgement.”
To apply for the 2020 Diversity in Health Care Bursaries, funded by the QEII Foundation, visit QE2Foundation.ca/DiversityBursary.
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that sees its role and tries to find solutions and keep iterating on those solutions. There will never be a single answer to the complex problems we are dealing with. We need to continue to learn and advance. Q: With a big job ahead of you, what does the first six months look like for you? A: The first six months will be bringing focus to some of the challenges, immediately trying to get those issues on the table in a way that we can start to make some progress. We made some big changes to the organization’s structure, so building that leadership team is critical for me. The other big category is about creating relationships and listening and learning. A lot of my focus will be on getting out into the various communities, meeting with providers and other people in the communities who have an interest and perspective on health care. Because I am from here, I have a familiarity with the system. But I am going to be very mindful of approaching it with real curiosity and not assuming. There is a huge risk if I come into this with big assumptions and they are not right.
My hope is that we can get beyond the hot topics that are worrying people. I do totally get that people are worried and I expect to hear about that. But my hope is that we can go beyond that and hear conversations about what really matters to them. If we assume for a minute that we are going to be OK with the big issues, what would matter to them for the future? Not just the burning issues of today, but the important conversations about health and how we are doing as a province. Q: What healthcare advancements would you like to see in the next five or 10 years as QEII New Generation evolves? A: The infrastructure pieces are critical. It’s so important to build state-of-the-art infrastructure, designed to enhance what we are doing today and catapult ourselves into the future. This represents a huge asset to us to move health care to a different place in the next five to 10 years. And part of that is the adopting of new technology.
We do need a single system of information in this province that actually capitalizes on all of the information that exists in bits and pieces. OPOR (One Patient, One Record), like it or not, is an important piece of strategy for us and we do need to find our way through it. I understand how challenging that will be, but it is the right thing to do. It has huge implications on safety, system efficiency and, most importantly, how people experience their care. Connected to that is virtual care. Most other systems in the world have moved beyond this notion that the only way people can access care is one person at a time, face to face — and the idea that you need to line up. Most other systems, other industries and other things in our lives, work on creating simple tools that allow people, in a convenient way, to get contact with a system. By way of example, other countries have created virtual triage systems whereby people don’t show up at the hospital for triage. Their first point of contact is electronically, through a tablet or phone, where they interact with someone for a triage process. People are sorted into different stages — for example, an ambulance is phoned or patients are told to see a primary care provider or told to come into emergency and the current wait is three hours. The dispatcher schedules a certain time later in the afternoon. Systems are doing this now. But we are still saying show up at emergency and wait in the waiting room.
It’s not a criticism of what we are doing today. It is simply acknowledging that the way the world is changing, how technology is changing and what people expect is changing and we are not delivering. QEII New Generation creates an opportunity for a hub, a catalyst and anchor point for the whole province.
Q: How will you work with the QEII Foundation to drive change forward?
– Dr. Brendan Carr
A: I hope to be very connected to the QEII Foundation and all foundations in the province. Where I just came from, the CEO of the foundation was a senior member of my team. We didn’t have a strategic conversation where our foundation wasn’t involved. The leaders of foundations have huge experience, not just with philanthropy, but insight from the community on how we can deal with complex issues.
I think for the foundation to do their job well, they need to be part of the conversation from the very beginning. The foundation plays a pivotal role in helping to change the narrative of health care. Foundations are uniquely positioned to host some of the new conversations, around dreaming big and questioning ‘What if?’ That really excites me. Q: What is your message for Nova Scotians who are worried about the future of health care? A: I understand and share your worries. This is my home and just like any other citizen, I understand how important this is. But I do want them to feel hopeful and even a little bit excited about the future. All of the pressures that we are feeling actually create an opportunity to look at how we could do things differently. I want people to have optimism about change and how it is within our reach and how it will impact their lives in a meaningful way.
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