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DO YOU THINK TO MAKE THE BIG JUMP AND COME TO WORK IN THE NWT?
Living in the Northwest Territories is a unique chance to discover a not-so-small corner of paradise.
Here are some tips for finding your dream job:
WHETHER IT IS TO PERFECT YOUR USE OF MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY OR TO LEARN ABOUT THE ACTIVE OFFER OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN FRENCH, THERE IS A TRAINING OPPORTUNITY FOR THAT!
The Professional Excellence Program of the Consortium national de formation en santé (CNFS)
This program aims to improve the knowledge of professionals, managers and students through lunchtime conferences on different themes. Participants can attend conferences physically or connect via video conference or webinar.
FIND MORE ABOUT THE MAJOR ISSUES REGARDING HEALTH CARE IN FRENCH
If you care about the availability of health services in French, this page contains some resources to make your job easier.
Learn about the importance of the active offer of health care services in French, the benefits of integrating the linguistic variable, and the standards on access to health and social services in the official languages.
THE ACTIVE OFFER OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN FRENCH
The active offer means to offer, in a proactive way, and at the first point of contact with the patient, services in the patient’s official language of choice. More specifically, it means that we enable patients to express themselves and to be served in the official language they feel most comfortable with. In healthcare, the active offer not only allows patients to communicate more easily and to be understood, but it also helps healthcare professionals to provide quality services that are safe, ethical, and fair, especially for linguistic-minority communities.
To find out more about the active offer visit the online toolbox set up by the Consortium national de formation en santé: http://www.offreactive.com/home/
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The Réseau du mieux-être du Nord de l'Ontario developped an interactive training on active offer of health services in French that is available online: https://www.reseaudumieuxetre.ca/en/health-service-providers/training-and-workshops/active-offer-of-french-language-health-services-online-interactive-training-course/
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The Réseau TNO Santé, as a member of the Société Santé en français, has taken a public stance regarding the active offer of health care services in French. This joint position statement is available online here: http://santefrancais.ca/wp-content/uploads/SSF_Active_Offer.pdf
Training at the Collège Nordique Francophone
The Collège nordique francophone provides French as a second language course. In collaboration with the Réseau TNO Santé, they hold training session regularly to improve the offer of health care services in French. Stay tuned!
Online Training in Medical Terminology at Collège Ahuntsic
This course focuses on the terminology encountered daily by employees dealing with medical documents. At the end of the program, staff will be able to understand the meaning of the medical terms used in the workplace.
Online Training on the Active Offer of Health Care Services at Université de Moncton
The active offer of health care services is the set of measures taken to ensure patients receive services in the official language of their choice, without having to ask for them. These services must be readily available, accessible, and of comparable quality to services offered in the other language.
The benefits of treating patients their mother tongue:
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more accurate health assessment
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lower risk of error
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better understanding and adherence to treatment
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better use of resources
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better health outcomes
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lower health care costs
Health-awareness Sessions by the University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine offers two public health-awareness events, for the public, and to Francophone communities in a convivial setting. The sessions are held in the spring and fall and cover a variety of topics explained in simple and accessible language
THE INTEGRATION OF LINGUISTIC DATA INTO THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
What is linguistic data?
There are two components to linguistic data: the language of preference and the language of belonging. The language of preference may vary from one situation to another while the language of belonging is a stable datum associating an individual with a linguistic group. The linguistic datum can be easily identified by considering two questions:
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What is your mother tongue?
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If your mother tongue is neither French nor English, in which of Canada’s official languages are you most comfortable?
Gathering linguistic data in Health Care allows one to::
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Deploy resources where they are needed
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Increase prevention and Health Care promotion
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Identify various trends in lifestyle-related diseases
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Increase quality, safety, and satisfaction
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Plan the offer of services as needed
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Understand how the services are used
There are two possible ways to improve the planning of French-language healthcare services using the integration of the linguistic variable:
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Integrate the linguistic variable in the patient's file.
This makes it possible to know and anticipate the needs of the population served and to better plan daily and long-term services.
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Capture the linguistic variable within the healthcare system to measure its linguistic capacity.
This measure determines the ability of an institution or a health care system to offer services in French. Combined with the integration of the linguistic variable in the patient's file, it favours accurate and efficient planning of health care services in French.
COLLECTING LINGUISTIC DATA TO DETERMINE THE CAPACITY OF THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM TO OFFER SERVICES IN FRENCH: THE EXAMPLE OF OZI.
OZi is a software developed by the Réseau des services de santé en français de l’Est de l’Ontario, that creates an exhaustive portrait of the province’s capacity to offer health care services in French. For more information, see the following documents: http://rssfe.on.ca/upload-ck/CPressefinalEN-avril-2018.pdf http://rssfe.on.ca/ra1718/en/index.html
TOOLS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER
The Health Care Human Resources Strategy Online Platform
This online platform provides a framework for bilingual human resources in health care. It contains tools and downloadable resources as well as video testimonials available in French and English. Its content is adapted to the specific issues of bilingual staff working in a minority context.
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This initiative was developed by the​ Réseau franco-santé du Sud de l’Ontario.
The Savoir-santé en français Web Platform
Savoir-santé en français is a web platform that brings together the latest tools, studies, and information on health care in French in Canada. Born out of a need for information sharing within the Mouvement Santé en français, this portal is fed by the 16 French-language healthcare networks in the country and by the Société Santé en français.
This initiative was developed by the Société Santé en français
The Framework for Implementing French Language Health Care Services
The Mouvement de la santé en français is currently developing a Framework for Implementing French Language Health Services. This tool will attempt to concretely answer the needs and questions of managers who wish to offer regular health services in French. Keep your eyes peeled…
Tools for Health Care Professionals
There are a few mobile apps designed to interpret medical terms from English to French. Some training programs also cater to Francophile health care professionals. For more information on how to equip your human resources to provide services in French look at our Health Care Professionals’ Page!
Standards on access to Health and Social Services in the Official Languages
Since 2017, the Health Standards Organization (HSO), in collaboration with Société Santé en français, has been developing standards on access to health and social services in Canada’s official languages. The objective: to improve access to health and social services for English-speaking communities in Quebec, and for French-language communities outside Quebec, along with the continuum of care.
The standards aims to:
• advice health and social services organizations on how to ensure quality and safety in their unique organizational and linguistic context
• identify quality health and social services organizations that deliver services to official language communities in their territories
• provide external evaluation bodies with measurable requirements to be included in evaluation programs
Consult the Standard here: https://healthstandards.org/standard/access-health-social-services-official-languages/
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FOR INSPIRATION: SUCCESS STORIES FROM OTHER FRENCH-LANGUAGE HEALTH NETWORKS IN CANADA!
PEI Health Card. The Réseau Santé en français Î.-P.-É. worked with the provincial government to integrate linguistic data into the province's health card. For more information see the link below:
Ontario Health Card. The Réseau des services de santé en français de l'Est de l'Ontario aims to follow the trend by integrating linguistic data into their provincial health card. The Ontario government also made provisions for this purpose in its 2018-2019 budget.
The Cafés de Paris in Nouveau-Brunswick. An initiative of the Horizon Health Network, in New-Brunswick, the Cafés de Paris are language training opportunities for health care professionals within their institutions. In partnership with the Réseau-action Organisation des services of the Société Santé et Mieux-être en français du Nouveau-Brunswick the concept was developed to be transferable to all health facilities.
The Étoiles Santé in Prince-Edward Island. Once a month, the Étoile Santé campaign of the Réseau Santé en français Î.-P.-É. recognizes a health care professional, offering services in French, in a chronicle of the province’s French-language newspaper.
The Directory of Bilingual Health Care Professionals in British Columbia. Available online, the directory of health care professionals offering French-language services is managed by the RésoSanté Colombie-Britannique. The directory is divided into 65 categories and covers 96 municipalities. Its search engine allows navigation by keyword, city, profession, or geographic region