Internationalizing The Michener Institute

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Internationalizing The Michener Institute

• Presented by
• Joan Laurie, Director
• Carolyn Menezes, Project Officer
• Centre for Continuing Professional Education
• We would like to thank ACCC for this opportunity
  to share our experiences and learn from others.

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Who Are We?
The Community Colleges
The Michener Institute
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The Michener Institute

• The only post-secondary institution in Canada
  specifically dedicated to health care education.
  Michener is funded by the Ontario Ministry of
  Health.
• CORE FUNDED PROGRAMS
• Acupuncture, Cardiovascular Perfusion,
  Chiropody, Diagnostic Cytology, Genetics
  Technology, Medical Laboratory Science, MRI,
  Nuclear Medicine Technology, Radiation Therapy,
  Radiological Technology, Respiratory Therapy,
  Ultrasound.

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Challenges We Face

• The funding relationship with the Ministry of
  Health does not support a mandate to expand
  outside of Ontario
• Recognition of the need for global competence is
  not included in the mission statement
• Because of high demand by Ontario students for
  program spaces, cannot offer spaces to
  international students
• For developing countries, curriculum delivery and
  content has to be adapted to the resources and
  skill level of students

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How Have We Met These Challenges

• There is the belief, held by a core group of
  staff, that Michener should share its expertise
  with the developing world because improving the
  health of a community makes a significant
  contribution to poverty reduction.
• Our international activities are either
  externally funded or are complete cost recovery

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Health Education for Palestinians in Lebanon

• Project Goal
• To provide and improve health care services to
  the economically disadvantaged Palestinian
  population living in refugee camps in Lebanon.
• Project Purpose
• To train the existing workforce of health
  professionals to perform high quality
  Echocardiography/ Ultrasound examinations and
  Medical Laboratory procedures

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BENEFITS- to the DCP-

• SKILLS
• Students receive a strong theoretical program and
  hands-on training adapted to the resources and
  needs of own environment sustainability
• Students able to travel overseas and gain
  valuable clinical experience enhanced skills
• CULTURAL EXPOSURE
• Exposure to an ethnically diverse population that
  lives in harmony new perspective

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BENEFITS- To The Michener Institute -

• The wonderful gift of these projects is that they
  give faculty the opportunity to acquire
  international and intercultural competence
• Faculty travels overseas and are exposed to the
  scope of practice in another country

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BENEFITS

• Gave Michener the opportunity to develop distance
  education programs that meet the needs of other
  students in developing countries
• Long term relationship/partnership established
• Michener is now involved in, and has a better
  understanding of, a part of the world to which it
  would not normally have been exposed
• Our specialized skills and expertise are being
  increasingly called upon in the international
  arena

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Palestinian Ultrasound Students In Toronto
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Palestinian Ultrasound Students In Toronto
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• Survival requires that countries of the world
  must learn to live together in peace. Learn is
  the operative word. Mutual respect,
  understanding, sympathy, and qualities that are
  destroyed by ignorance are fostered by
  knowledge.
• UNESCO World Congress Report, 1961

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• The best way to foster global community and
  knowledge is through cooperative international
  strategies, therefore
• International Education is a Critical Survival
  Strategy.