Conversations: An Interdisciplinary approach to health promotion and retention in Quebec's regions

A multidisciplinary team of students from John Abbott’s Health programs travels by bus for day trips to supply health services and information to a variety of age groups. The mornings are spent with local students in regional high schools and the afternoons with community members in local churches. JAC students are satisfying their internship requirements and, at the same time, learning about the local community. Faculty internship coordinators are released to research internship opportunities in the regions and supervise and support their students. Potential employers are invited to visit the kiosks and interact with students who are interested in working in the region. These “Health Caravans” are arranged in collaboration with English Speaking Community groups that are also funded by Dialogue McGill. Communities visited over the years include Lachute, Ste Agathe, Joliette, Ormstown, Arundel, Gore, Morin Heights, Mont-Tremblant, and Cowansville.

Dimension 4 Funding is used to provide French language support for targeted groups of students (i.e. program-specific French language skills and support delivered in their clinical setting for nursing students, training for students from health programs who write the OQLF exam, and Language Training for graduating Paramedic students who must write their licensing exam in French)