President's Message
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COMMUNICATING WITH PHYSICIANS IN ALBERTA November 2015 ZONE MEDICAL STAFF ASSOCIATIONS OF ALBERTA VITAL SIGNS President’s Message: Progress Through Advocacy AMA Update CZMSA and You Resident Physicians in the Legislature Mirror, Mirror on the Wall... What’s Up Doc? On Army Medicine Practitioner Advocacy Assistance Line (PAAL) Helping More by Doing Less Medical Staff Associations in Alberta Treating Palliative and End of Life Clients in Their Homes The Harm Reduction Approach to Drug Abuse A CALGARY & AREA MEDICAL STAFF SOCIETY PUBLICATION November 2015 CAMSS EXECUTIVE Contents: President: Dr. Sharron L. Spicer, 403-955-7211 Past President: Dr. Steven J. Patterson, 403-943-4555 Secretary-Treasurer: Dr. Charlene Hunter, 403-770-3808 President’s Message: Progress Through Advocacy ..................................2 CENTRAL ZMSA EXECUTIVE AMA Update ................................................................................................3 President: Dr. André Van Zyl, 403-845-2815 Vice-President: Dr. Alayne Farries Past President: Dr. Kevin M. Hay, 780-842-4920 CZMSA and You .........................................................................................4 Secretary-Treasurer: Dr. Deirdre McLean, 403-782-6555 Resident Physicians in the Legislature .......................................................5 EDMONTON ZMSA EXECUTIVE President: Dr. Shelley L. Duggan, 780-468-3377 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall... .........................................................................6 Vice-President: Dr. Randy Naiker, 780-484-7575 Past President: Dr. Robert W. Broad, 780-735-2924 Secretary-Treasurer: Dr. Michael Jacka, 780-907-6097 What’s Up Doc?…. .....................................................................................7 NORTH ZMSA EXECUTIVE On Army Medicine.......................................................................................8 Acting President: Dr. Sandra Corbett (in acting role until ZMSA is set up and ZMSA executive elected), 780-791-1333 Practitioner Advocacy Assistance Line (PAAL) ........................................10 SOUTH ZMSA EXECUTIVE President: Dr. Fredrykka D. Rinaldi, 403-526-3400 Helping More by Doing Less.....................................................................12 Vice-President: Dr. Carl W. Nohr, 403-580-4610 Secretary-Treasurer: Dr. Jessica Abraham Medical Staff Associations in Alberta .......................................................13 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Treating Palliative and End of Life Clients in Their Homes .......................14 Dr. Sharron L. Spicer, CAMSS President Dr. Carl W. Nohr, AMA President The Harm Reduction Approach to Drug Abuse .......................................15 Dr. André van Zyl, CZMSA President Dr. Joseph Abraham Dr. Richard Bergstrom Dr. Chris Ayers Dr. Kathryn Andrusky Dr. Steve Patterson Pansy Angevine Dr. Stan Houston Save the Dates! MANAGING EDITOR: Hellmut Regehr, [email protected] CAMSS EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Dr. Sharron Spicer – [email protected] AGM Audrey Harlow – [email protected] November 18, 2015 | Glencoe Club – 5:30-9:00 pm Hellmut Regehr – [email protected] Calgary & Area Medical Staff Society (CAMSS) Children’s Christmas Party 350, 708-11 Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta T2R 0E4 November 28, 2015 | Sheraton Four Points Hotel – 11:00 am -1:00 pm EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT: Audrey Harlow 403-205-2093 2875 Sunridge Way NE, Calgary, AB | Willow Room SUBMISSIONS: Vital Signs welcomes submissions (articles, notices, letters to the Council Meeting editors, announcements, photos, etc.) from physicians in Alberta. | Please limit articles to 1000 words or less. December 9, 2015 ACH 01 – 5:30-8:30 pm Please send any contributions to: Spindrift Design Studio Inc. Hellmut Regehr, [email protected] CZMSA Vital Signs reserves the right to edit article submissions and letters to the editor. Executive Meeting November 12, 2015 | Teleconference – 7:00-9:00 pm The deadline for article submissions for the next issue of Vital Signs is November 16, 2015. Executive Meeting | CONTRIBUTORS: December 10, 2015 Teleconference – 7:00-9:00 pm The opinions expressed in Vital Signs do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of CAMSS or CAMSS executive. EZMSA ADVERTISING: Please visit www.camss.ca to view media kit or contact Executive Meeting Hellmut Regehr at [email protected]. November 19, 2015 | Misericordia – 5:00-5:30 pm Claims made in advertisements are not verified by CAMSS and CAMSS assumes no responsibility for advertising accuracy. Council Meeting © 2015 November 19, 2015 | Misericordia 1N-106 – 5:30-7:30 pm ZMSAs – Communicating With Physicians in Alberta 2 President’s Message: Progress through Advocacy leaders for action. For members of our profes- It is fitting as Remembrance Day is upon us sion, we also advocate for working conditions that Dr. Chris Ayers reminds us in his article that promote good health — healthy doctors “On Army Medicine” of the famous Canadian are more likely to provide good care — and doctor, John McCrae, who penned the famous fair compensation. poem “In Flanders Fields”. I will proudly but soberly wear my poppy this year and reflect Our advocacy roles may change over our on Dr. McCrae’s heartfelt contemplation of careers and even between generations. Our the ugliness of war. senior practitioners, the Baby Boomers, have spent many hours — years, even — doing Our training for physicians has also changed to advocacy work before it had a label. For many, formally recognize the crucial role of advocacy I’m sure, it was a matter of doing the right in our work. The CanMEDS framework, for thing when they saw a need. I expect this example, lists advocacy as one of its elements. was the work done at the end of the day, long In this issue of Vital Signs, Dr. Joseph Abraham Dr. Sharron L. Spicer, CAMSS President after patients had been cared for, when a few explains how residents are equipping them- uninterrupted hours could be found to write selves to navigate the provincial government Vital Signs is your magazine — a publication a letter or draft a business proposal. With a structure and engage MLAs. This was not on by physicians for physicians. Over the past pattern characteristic of Baby Boomers, many the curriculum when I was a trainee! few months, the Vital Signs editorial board sacrificed joy in exchange for hard work; the has sought input from doctors across Alberta ethic was that leisure comes when work is In this issue, we also profile patient advocacy about topics that are important to them. done. With the drive to serve the greater good, in addiction medicine, palliative care, and Knowing that doctors are keen to talk about these doctors shaped the healthcare system rural communities. We also look at our own what drives them, we selected the theme of and our universities. Generation X doctors, organizations — the AMA and the medical staff “advocacy” for this November issue. Advocacy now entering middle age and mid-career, associations, for example — to show how they can be defined as “the giving of public support characteristically show an openness to diver- can work to represent the needs of physicians. to an idea, a course of action or a belief”. 1 sity and, by extension, advocate for those As always, Vital Signs strives to make your I am delighted at the number of contributions who are vulnerable. Our younger docs (the voice heard. As a publication by the medical about doctors’ motivations to improve systems, Gen Y or Millennials) are characterized by staff associations of Alberta, we have the inde- reflecting their strong passions for patient care their desire to make a difference in the world pendence to speak on behalf of doctors. While and for physician well-being. through social change. Unlike their older we collaborate with our partner agencies such Baby Boomer counterparts, though, they are As physicians, we are all involved at some level as AMA, AHS and Covenant Health, and more inclined to self-organize like-minded in advocacy. For our patients, we urge them to Alberta Health, we do not report to them, peers through grass roots activism than to choose the health and dietary practices that will thus we can freely express our opinions and engage in the institutions in which they work. lead to optimal heath, we help them navigate concerns in these pages. Your letters and sub- their journeys through the sometimes con- Among the medical community is a small missions are welcome. You will find submis- fusing primary care and hospital systems, we group of dedicated military doctors, who sion guidelines at www.camss.ca. We welcome write letters for special consideration, and we sacrifice more than most of us serving their to our editorial board Dr. Tobias Gelber, a sometimes lobby to administrative or political patients, their colleagues and our nation. family physician from Pincher Creek. Others who may have an interest in contributing to Dr. Chris Ayers reminds us in his article “On Army Medicine” the creation of the magazine are encouraged of the famous Canadian doctor, John McCrae, who penned to contact our managing editor. the famous poem “In Flanders Fields”. I close with words of Franklin D. Roosevelt: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” FOOTNOTES 1 www.oxfordlearnersdictionary.com. Accessed October 19, 2015. VITAL SIGNS November 2015 3 AMA Update: Dear Colleagues In this, my first Vital