"Telling the Stories of Indigenous Cancer Patient Multidisciplinary Rounds"

Project Background
People identifying as Indigenous and living with cancer often face inequitable barriers to care and treatment that are not readily addressed during cancer centre visits. To advocate for and support Indigenous cancer clients facing complex care barriers, Cancer Care Alberta began operating “Indigenous Cancer Patient Multidisciplinary Rounds” in 2020. Facilitated by an Indigenous Cancer Patient Navigator, this novel model of care brings together health care providers and support persons from across sectors, including an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, cancer centre and community care providers. These monthly community Rounds provide a forum to inform and suggest care of specific patients and their circle. Importantly, Rounds use Indigenous teachings to recognize a client’s strengths and also articulate and address systemic inequities and racism faced by Indigenous peoples.

“Telling the stories of Indigenous Cancer Patient Multidisciplinary Rounds” is a 3-year project (2023-2026), funded by a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta Healthier Albertan Grant, to assess the impact of Rounds on patients and providers, and to spread Rounds to other contexts and settings if/where appropriate. Indigenous ways of knowing will be privileged in our approach, as existing tools and measures of cancer patient-reported outcomes (e.g., health related quality of life and distress) were not developed with an equity focus and may not assess values and experiences of care relevant to Indigenous patients with cancer. We will use individual and/or group story-telling as our methodology, to hear Rounds’ participants tell their story of involvement in Rounds.

Our project team includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of the Indigenous Cancer Patient Multidisciplinary Rounds; other impacted healthcare providers and community agency workers; system administrators; academic researchers; and Knowledge Keepers.

Term: ~January 2024 to ~June 2026

Deadline: March 18

Location: Remote/UCalgary Cal Wenzel Precision Health Building

Graduate Student Role

Funding is available to support a graduate student to work with us throughout the term of the project. We welcome a student to participate in this work as part of their thesis project, or as a Graduate Assistantship. The ideal candidate will have knowledge and experience of Indigenous ways of knowing, Indigenous methodologies, relationship-building, and community-based approaches to research. Knowledge of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Blackfoot culture, and Blackfoot language fluency would be an asset. Remuneration rate to be negotiated but will meet or exceed the minimum stipulated by the University of Calgary for graduate student stipends or Graduate Assistantships.

Tasks/responsibilities may involve:

• Helping to develop the story-telling proposal;
• Participating in the story-telling as a listener;
• Thematically analyzing the stories shared with us;
• Creating resources to support the sharing or spreading of Rounds to new contexts;
• Participating in meetings with project team members and stakeholders throughout the life of the project e.g., project investigators, Indigenous Nurse Navigators, Piikani Nation members, Council and Elders, Aakom-Kiyii Health Services, family physicians and palliative and end of life care providers, Jack Ady Cancer Centre staff, and Alberta Health Services (AHS) administrators; academic researchers; and Knowledge Keepers;
• Helping to organize team meetings e.g., preparing agendas, slides;
• Facilitating the provision of gifts, offerings and/or honoraria as per Indigenous cultural protocol;
• Preparing reports, presentations, and manuscripts.

The student will work with the project principal investigators, Arrow Big Smoke and Jessica Simon. The student will also be invited to join bi-weekly Palliative Medicine research staff meetings where they will have the opportunity to learn about a variety of research activities taking place in the Division of Palliative Medicine.

How to Apply
If you are interested in applying, please email Jessica Simon jessica.simon@ahs.ca. Please provide a brief CV, resume or 1 page letter about your interest in this project.