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Nunavut health workers prepare for future emergencies

A group of Iqaluit medical professionals spent the weekend preparing themselves for a worst-case scenario, learning about ways to keep themselves and their patients safe should a dangerous illness break out.

Iqaluit medical professionals train with protective equipment for worst-case scenario illnesses

CBC News ·
Steve Scott, left, helps two RCMP officers secure masks during the training. Scott, a nurse at Iqaluit's Qikiqtani General Hospital, worked in Toronto during the SARS outbreak in 2003. 'It's scary,' he says. 'It's really, really scary.' (Tamara Pimentel/CBC)

A group of Iqaluit medical professionals spent the weekend training for a worst-case scenario by learning ways to keep themselves and their patients safe should a dangerous illness break out.

Health care workers remove a dummy from an ambulance. The workshop used the dummy in exercises to demonstrate proper care for patients affected by airborne, contagious illness. (Tamara Pimentel/CBC)
The group — about a dozen, doctors, nurses, and medics, total — donned protective suits and worked with a dummy patient, always under the watchful eye of Toronto's Dr. Laurie Mazurik, who facilitated the course.

"Here in Iqaluit, we're really short in numbers," said Steve Scott, a nurse at Iqaluit's Qikiqtani General Hospital who helped organize the course.

"We're really short in manpower. So if there was ever an incident that would happen, we have to make sure that when we have a multidisciplinary system together. That we have the same language."

Mazurik tailored the training to make sense for Northern health practitioners, warning participants to watch out for drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. Nunavut has the highest rates in the country of the disease.

Dr. Laurie Mazurik (centre) helps two health care workers put on protective gear. Dr. Mazurik flew up from Toronto to deliver the workshop. She says she changed the focus to make it more applicable to the North, including placing an emphasis on tuberculosis response. (Tamara Pimentel/CBC)
"They deal with TB on a regular basis," says Mazurik, "but sometimes, you maybe don't hold the standard of personal protection to as high a level as you should."

Scott says he understands the importance of the training from first-hand experience. He was in Toronto during the SARS crisis over a decade ago.

"It's scary," he says of the experience. "It's really, really scary."

"We have to basically watch each others' back"

Kerry Schwartz, who is also a nurse at Qikiqtani General, says that she "absolutely" feels more comfortable having the training, should an emergency arise. She says she's looking forward to sharing what she learned with her co-workers at the hospital.

"Bringing the knowledge back to the department, helping the people who are advising us as to what we should buy, and what works and what doesn't work — you can't do that unless you've tried it on," she says.

Scott says he hopes the weekend reinforced the need for proper safety equipment, as health care workers can sometimes forget about themselves in the rush to help a patient in need.

"When it comes to tuberculosis, because there's a lot of it up here, [I don't think] we always take all the precautions we need to, therefore putting ourselves, and our colleagues in danger," he says.

"We have to basically watch each others' back."

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