Program
Compassion Under Pressure: Factors that Promote and Hinder Compassion in Health Care
November 12, 2022 from 9:10am EDT to 10:00am EDT
Description:
Many people enter health care because they value compassion and seek a career that allows them to use clinical expertise to help others. Compassion involves understanding the needs of another person and taking action to help them. Compassion is an essential component of quality health care and has become an important focus in health care research and organizations. There are systemic challenges to compassion within health care systems under stress, including increased workloads and competing pressures for time and resources, the on-going pandemic, health inequities and discrimination. This talk will describe factors that PAs and other members of the health care team encounter that can be a challenge for compassion. It will also provide insights from the literature on theories and strategies that aim to increase compassion in health care, working at individual and systemic levels. Information on organizations that support compassion in healthcare and resources for further learning will be provided.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to:
- Understand meanings of compassion
- Understand factors that support and challenge compassion in health care
- Become aware of key organizations and resources that support compassion in healthcare
Speakers / Panelists
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Compassion Under Pressure: Factors that Promote and Hinder Compassion in Health Care
November 12, 2022 from 9:10am EDT to 10:00am EDT -
Qualitative Methods in Health Care Research
November 13, 2022 from 1:00pm EDT to 1:50pm EDT
Leslie St. Jacques
BHSc (PA), CC-PA; MSW, RSW, MES
Leslie St. Jacques
Leslie St. Jacques, BHSc PA (McMaster, 2010); MES; MSW, RSW
PhD student, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Health Professions Education Research, University of Toronto
With twelve years of combined experience as a PA in peri-operative neurosurgery and cardiovascular surgery ICU, Leslie St. Jacques has been immersed in intense clinical environments, that have become increasingly pressurized by the pandemic.
Leslie’s career has been characterized by intensity from the start. As brand-new PA grads from the first class of McMaster's PA program Leslie and her classmates worked through uncertainty and adversity to break down barriers and help establish the new clinical role in Ontario. Leslie later worked as the first PA Co-Lead and PA Education Lead at the University Health Network; became President of the Board of Directors of CAPA and is currently the Past President. She is very interested in how compassion - and the interpersonal environments we are steeped in, set the tone for our experiences as PAs, PA students, patients and family members.
In addition to her PA life, Leslie is also a psychotherapist with a Master’s in Social Work. As a Research Assistant on faculty projects and in her thesis research, Leslie gained experience with qualitative research methods. She completed a Graduate Diploma in Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster University and has just begun a PhD in Health Professions Education Research at the University of Toronto.
Leslie loves the great outdoors and hiking trails, comedy and beautiful food, (and when these things are combined all the better!) and is excited to visit la belle province.