The Apprenticeship of Home: Reflections, Research, and Clinical Practice

Below is an example of how practice-based learning and research networks, such as Northern Ontario School of Medicine Research Toward Health Hub (NORTHH), will help Ontario enhance equity and justice while also increasing joy and meaning for health care workers.

The contributing author, Paige Stevenson, shows how working with her community is helping to improve health outcomes in Ontario.

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As a Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) University medical student, a researcher at the Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity, and a proud member of my home community, Kenora, Ontario, I have had the unique experience of returning there for my 8-month rural medicine placement. This experience has been deeply meaningful, shaped not only by my training, but by my personal connection to the community.

Photographer: Teresa Stevenson, Lake of the Woods

My Grandmother lived in Wabigoon First Nations for the latter half of her life, and the beginning of mine, without reliable access to primary health care, including preventive services such as cancer screening. Growing up, I did not fully understand what that absence meant or the implications it would have on her life. Without access to screening, along with the health literacy needed to understand its importance, my grandmother did not have the opportunity for early detection, and unfortunately passed away from cervical cancer.

For the past three years, I have collaborated with the Arcand Centre, the Kenora community, and the All Nations Health Partners Ontario Health Team (ANHP OHT) to support cancer screening initiatives guided by knowledge translation, most recently focused on cervical screening. This work has been conducted with the community rather than for it, ensuring meaningful stakeholder input throughout, evolving alongside changing contexts, including: Ontario’s shift to HPV-based cervical screening, Ontario Health’s equity priorities, and the introduction of the Rural Generalist Council Care model within the ANHP OHT.

In my fourth month of placement, after seeing several women for cervical cancer screening who had not previously been screened, I was invited to support a cervical screening clinic in a nearby First Nations community. This experience brought together my personal reflections, research work, and clinical practice in a powerful way. Each patient faced distinct barriers to care, including unmet basic needs, prior trauma, fear of institutions, and limited health literacy. In an urban setting, these encounters might have seemed routine, but here, they carried deeper significance. They were opportunities for patient education, culturally safe care that centred patient autonomy, and access to essential preventive cancer screening. Beyond my excitement for how this new model of care may support patients in the future, I also reflect on my Grandmother and wonder how this could have impacted her care, health and life.

My rural medicine placement in Kenora has been deeply fulfilling, grounded in personal experience and a growing appreciation of the community’s history and resilience. Kenora’s ongoing dedication and innovation continue to drive meaningful change. Being part of this system at this time feels significant, both in understanding how the past has shaped current care and in considering the role I hope to play in its future.