As we enjoy the seasonal changes this winter, we are reminded of the beauty of crisp mornings and winter activities. From an instructor’s viewpoint, this offers us an opportunity to reflect back on what we have taught thus far this year, and on what our students are learning from us. In this newsletter, we aim to share a little about what we have been doing in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences to intentionally embed teaching and learning about equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization (EDID) into the Bachelor of Health & Exercise Sciences curriculum (BHES).

Although knowledge about EDID is important for everyone, the development of EDID-related competencies is of particular importance for those who will work in areas of individual and community health, health education, and health-related research. All of these areas have a well-documented legacy of ongoing harm and discrimination against people from historically, persistently, and systemically marginalized groups (HPSMGs), including Indigenous, Black, and People of Color, people from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, fat people, people with disabilities, women, and elders (Tam 2019, Turpel-Lafonde 2020).

“Over the next two years, we aim to revise the BHES curriculum to integrate the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that support equitable and anti-oppressive practice in HES-related professions.”

Indeed, most health professional organizations in Canada now state an expectation for practitioners to work safely and effectively with a diversity of colleagues and clients. Many have also connected this to a moral and social responsibility to move beyond inclusion towards anti-oppressive professional practice that will advance health equity for HPSMG and communities (Medical Council of Canada 2023, Young et al 2011).

However, explicit preparation for this task has received little attention in health professional training programs. In fact, there is no common understanding of the competencies (including knowledge, skills, and attitudes) that health professionals need to work inclusively and equitably with others.

The American Association of Medical Colleges recently released a set of developmental EDID competencies for physicians (2022). Although EDID competencies can also be identified in professional standards for registered nurses, social workers, and various other allied health professionals, no comprehensive set of EDID competencies has been defined for professional practice in HES-related fields. Moreover, there is no clear guidance on how to help learners develop those competencies.

Over the next two years, we aim to revise the BHES curriculum to integrate the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that support equitable and anti-oppressive practice in HES-related professions. This project has been funded through the UBCO Aspire-2040 Learning Transformations Fund and work is underway.

Successful completion of the project will include:

• Conducting a literature review and develop a draft set of EDID competencies based on priorities that have been identified in other health-related disciplines.
• Establishing an advisory panel of about 25 educators, practitioners, students, alumni, and community members, including individuals with specific knowledge of education and/or professional practice in the HES context, a diversity of lived experience, and a well-developed equity lens.
• Conducting a three-round Delphi consensus exercise with panel members to refine the draft set of EDID competencies.
• Testing the competencies on a relevant population of health professionals (for desirability) and educators (for feasibility) who are external to the advisory panel. The project team will incorporate feedback before presenting a final list to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for approval.
• Creating analytical rubrics for each competency with developmental descriptions of difference performance levels.
• Creating a curriculum map to identify the BHES courses where each competency will be introduced, reinforced, and assessed.

We’re taking an ambitious, program-level approach that involves collaboration across our School, partnership with community members, and support from HES Leadership and from the institution. It’s an exciting project, but efforts to embed EDID into curricula don’t need to be this daunting!

Mary Jung and Meaghan MacNutt
School of Health and Exercise Science

References

American Association of Medical Colleges. (2022) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Competencies Across the Learning Continuum. https://store.aamc.org/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-competencies-across-the-learning-continuum.html

Medical Council of Canada. (2023, March). Providing anti-oppressive health care. https://mcc.ca/wp-content/uploads/medical-expert-objectives-en.pdf

Tam, T. (2019). Addressing Stigma: Towards a More Inclusive Health System. Public Health Agency of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/addressing-stigma-what-we-heard/stigma-eng.pdf

Turpel-Lafond, ME. (2020). In plain sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination in BC health care, full report. https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/613/2020/11/In-Plain-Sight-Full-Report.pdf

Young, I. M., Halvorson-Bourgeois, B., Maxwell, L., Nicholas, M., & Riotte, M. (2021). Anti-oppressive practice: An integral component of a graduate curriculum. Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders, 5(3)

“Creating a safe space for Indigenous youth to be unapologetically themselves, traditional, loud, quiet, victorious and defeated, is all central to my outlook on sport and reconciliation.”

Skylar Bown (BHK’20, MPT’22) is a 2024-25 Alumni Builder Award recipient. The co-founder and co-operator of Remote Rehab, she is a compassionate and dedicated physiotherapist committed to delivering accessible and personalized healthcare solutions to underserved populations. She focuses on ensuring that Indigenous, Northern, and rural communities have equitable access to care.

Beyond her clinical practice, she actively promotes sports as a means for reconciliation and healing. She also serves as a mentor and motivator through her role as a track-and-field coach, and chairs KidSport Kelowna, where she leads efforts to dismantle barriers that prevent youth from participating in sports.

What motivates you to serve your community?

SB: In both sports and academics, I received strong support from my family and friends. As I got older, I recognized that not everyone has this privilege. I want to be able to provide that opportunity for youth in sport to have healthy role models. Sport is a building block of interpersonal skills, leadership skills, friendship, self-realization and the concept of being active for life.

I feel especially strongly about this in an Indigenous sport setting. I was lucky enough to attend the North American Indigenous Games as a coach for the athletics team. It was beautiful to see how tradition and Indigenous ways of knowledge and being can be integrated into the sport setting. I think that I learned more from the youth I was coaching than they did from me. Creating a safe space for Indigenous youth to be unapologetically themselves, traditional, loud, quiet, victorious and defeated, is all central to my outlook on sport and reconciliation.

You also serve communities through your work as a physiotherapist. How has your physiotherapy practice evolved?

Remote Rehab started as a passion project between my partner and I—he is also a physiotherapist. We were inspired by our research project in school that explored virtual physiotherapy in a remote setting for those who received knee and hip replacements. Despite having very few participants, we were able to tease out that the value of receiving physio care virtually far outweighed receiving no care at all. This inspired us to find a way to bring physiotherapy across the province in a more inclusive, through telehealth.

Physiotherapy is a broader profession than I really understood growing up (I only attended as an athlete). For example, physiotherapy for our aging population can reduce the risk of falls and the need for elders to leave their homes as they age. Remote Rehab took a turn when we decided to trial our model in acute care hospital settings in the early fall. Since then, we have been providing services two hospitals. We are have been building a relationship with the Upper Similkameen Indian Band and have met members and provided physiotherapy services to their band in-person.

The biggest barrier to physiotherapy in rural settings is access, so I believe that we are breaking down these barriers by simply being accessible. As long as a patient has internet, a camera, microphone, and a space to do a session, they can access physiotherapy.

You have spoken about making ‘wise mind decisions.’ How has this approach served you?

I think the best piece of advice I ever received was from my mom in twelfth grade when I was deciding whether I should choose human kinetics or applied sciences as my top choice in my university applications. She encouraged me to practice using my wise mind, over a solely reasonable or emotional mind. Emotionally, I was passionate about sport and movement, but reasonably I was proficient in math and physics. In the end, I chose what makes my heart sing, while considering that kinesiology incorporates physics as well as my love for human movement.

“My advice to undergraduate students is that six years from now you will look back and be proud of yourself regardless of the bumps in the road. Listen to your body, take breaks, treat yourself with grace.”

I certainly use my wise mind to this day when it comes to juggling my various roles as a coach, physio, KidSport chair, partner, friend, daughter, you name it. We make decisions every day on how we would like our life to go. If you’re only acting with passion or rationally, you might miss out on the best of both worlds (wise mind decisions).

What is a philosophy of health and wellbeing that you live by?

SB: Definitely movement and especially intuitive movement, are central to me. I think that the way we move our body should never be as punishment. Able-bodied people are lucky to be able to express themselves in ways that feel good, so I think we should! That doesn’t mean I don’t think powering through a bit of discomfort is not warranted sometimes (especially in my practice), but in the grand scheme of using our bodies, we should enjoy using our body. Each individual knows themselves best and following your intuition is valuable in allowing ourselves to be happy and healthy.

Ava Neely graduated in June 2024 with a Bachelor in Human Kinetics and a Minor in Psychology. Like many students, she started first year at UBC Okanagan without an exact map of her academic path before finding the ideal combination—and balance along the way. 

“I started UBC Okanagan in the Faculty of Science,” says Ava. “With a competitive sports background I met other students doing sports. Then I learned what kinesiology was about—the cognitive, social, emotional and physical benefits of exercise. I then transferred into the School of Health and Exercise Sciences. A Bachelor degree in Human Kinetics and a Minor in Psychology seemed a good fit.”

Ava pilot tests the COSMED K5 for a validation study with fellow lab mates. The COSMED is a portable metabolic cart which was used in the validation study to measure cardiorespiratory fitness levels during the leg and arm cycling tests.

As Ava progressed in her degree she looked for an entry point to get involved in research. She contacted Dr. Kathleen Martin Ginis, Professor in both the School of Health and Exercise Sciences and the Department of Medicine. Dr. Martin Ginis’s research focuses on understanding and changing physical activity behaviour, particularly among people living with spinal cord injury.

Dr. Martin Ginis offered her a chance to work fulltime in her lab over the summer. Dr. Martin Ginis also introduced her to Dr. Heather Gainforth, Associate Professor and Director of the Applied Behaviour Lab (ABC Lab) where her team works to close the gap between health behaviour change research and practice. With the mentorship and support of these researchers, Ava found opportunities open up for her, including attending research conferences.

Build those connections with your profs. They care about the students and have a passion for what they do. They encouraged, inspired and mentored me to become the person I am today.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Dr. Martin Ginis,” says Ava. “Our interests aligned so well, and it was through the exposure to research and these relationships that I decided to pursue an honours thesis.”

She was co-supervised by Drs. Martin Ginis and Cameron Gee, and, in April 2023, she successfully defended her Undergraduate Honours Thesis on the Construct Validity of the Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire for People with Disabilities. The thesis explored whether the measures of physical activity participation for use among people with physical and/or sensory disabilities were actually valid and reliable. In other words, are researchers really measuring what they think they are measuring?

Her results provided preliminary evidence confirming that, yes, the questionnaire on physical activity has validity, but Ava notes that more data is needed, particularly in taking into account the diverse disability groups represented in the Canadian population.

At the 2023 ICORD Annual Research Meeting, Ava presented some of the findings from her Honours Thesis.

In her final term, Ava decided to push herself more out of her comfort zone. She went on an international exchange to Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She recommends the experience to other students with an interest in travel and meeting new people. She credits Go Global with helping her determine what schools to choose from and what courses were compatible with her degree.

In her final term, Ava went on international exchange to Monash University in Australia. Here she visits the Twelve Apostles rock formations along Australia’s coast.

After finishing her degree at the end of 2023, Ava then took a few months off to further indulge her passion for travel––wending her way through New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia––before returning to Canada to find work.

With her accumulated degrees and substantial life and learning experience, she was hired on to the team at Lifemark Health Group in Calgary. In her role as Return to Work Coordinator, Ava assists people injured on the job to return to work in a safe way. This entails worksite visits to analyze the physical demands of the job and developing a plan in collaboration with the employer and employee on when, how and if the employee can go back to the same duties as before the injury.

“I enjoy the collaborative environment,” says Ava. “Our team consists of five other kinesiologists in addition to myself, and two physiotherapists. A couple of us are new graduates.”

Though she enjoys her current work, Ava has her sights set on Masters in Kinesiology. She plans to start in the Fall of 2025 with a focus on how exercise prescriptions may help prevent or mitigate dementia and cognitive decline.

Grateful for all the personal and professional growth over the course of her undergraduate experience, Ava attests to finding balance as key.

“Because of my competitive nature, I tend towards overloading myself with challenges,” says Ava. “While good to be ambitious, I’ve also learned that moderation in all the areas of my life is good for me and yields the best results.”

Job Classification:
Depending on their program (Masters or PhD) Graduate TA’s will be ranked at the level of GTA I or GTA II

Course Openings:
Various courses within the Bachelor of Human Kinetics and Nursing curricula
Student Eligibility: Must be registered in a Master’s or PhD program
Salary: Markers, GTA I, GTA II per BCGEU agreement

Application Deadline: May 23, 2022

Duties and estimated hours of work:

GTA duties may include the following:

• Marking assignments and exams
• Managing discussion/tutorial periods
• Teaching labs/tutorials under supervision of faculty
• Invigilation duties
• Academic assistance to students in office hours Estimated hours of work per term: 192

*Positions and the number of hours assigned to GTAs are subject to funding*

APPLICATION PROCEDURES:

Please complete the application form and a cover letter with a statement of relevant experience and a statement of all other academic funding for the academic year 2022-2023 (including scholarship and research assistantship funding). Please return these documents by email to Carli Tingstad carli.tingstad@ubc.ca by May 23, 2022.

UBC hires on the basis of merit and is committed to employment equity.

Click the link below to download the application form

HES_TA_Application_Form_2022_23