Dr. Vivien Suttorp to receive U of L’s Friends of Health Sciences award

caroline.zentner — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:31:14 +0000

For her incredible and consistent commitment to ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge public health students, the Faculty of Health Sciences is pleased to recognize Dr. Vivien Suttorp with this year’s Friends of Health Sciences award.

As lead medical officer of health for South Zone with Alberta Health Services, Suttorp’s role is a busy one. She’s also an occupational health consultant and medical lead for infection prevention and control in South Zone. In addition, she has supervised more than 16 U of L practicum students since 2011, alongside a bevy of graduate and medical students from other institutions.

“Dr. Vivien Suttorp is someone who fully exemplifies the values of her profession and who teaches the principle that everyone owns public health,” says Dr. Robert Wood, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences. “We are delighted to acknowledge the immense investments Dr. Suttorp has made in health care, to our public health students and to our faculty.”

“I am delighted and honoured to receive this award, but simultaneously, all the team efforts of those who supported students need to be acknowledged,” says Suttorp. “I will accept the award on behalf of all the great teams that I have the privilege to work with in public health and other programs who support our students in learning applied public health.”

The diversity that comes with working in public health appeals to many students. From emergency disaster management and disease and injury prevention to health promotion, health status and surveillance, students have opportunities to see the public health theory they learned in the classroom applied in real-world settings.

“South Zone is small as far as population goes, but it has great diversity,” says Suttorp. “We have some very unique populations and cultures and needs, even from a health equity perspective.”

When she arrived in southern Alberta in July of 2008, Suttorp worked for the Chinook Health Region. Less than a year later, Alberta Health Services was created and her territory expanded to include the southern swath of the province from British Columbia to Saskatchewan, with Granum, Brooks and Oyen defining the northernmost points.

“Because of the diversity of areas, I also have a diversity of undergraduate and master’s in public health students, as well as medical students and residents,” she says.

Suttorp is a regular guest lecturer at the U of L. She ensures students learn about how public health theory is applied by bringing actual scenarios into the classroom. She also provides lectures on risk assessment, risk management and risk communications. Then, in a subsequent lecture, students apply the theory to current scenarios.

“In medicine, we learn through case presentations,” she says. “That’s what’s exciting and what makes it stick. I think it creates energy and enthusiasm in the class and helps to apply basic theory into practice.”

Along with teaching and mentoring students, Suttorp is a member of the advisory committee for the U of L’s public health program and conducts research with faculty members. Beyond that, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is a key stakeholder in emergency planning and response from a community perspective.

Originally from Holland, Suttorp immigrated to Canada as a child. If medicine hadn’t won out as her career, she might well have become a teacher or professional musician, her two other loves. Her primary job throughout undergraduate studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia was teaching music and she also enjoyed playing in the university band. Now, she plays music with her twin girls.

The 2019 Friends of Health Sciences Award will be presented on Thursday, Oct. 10 at a reception and dinner in the U of L’s Markin Hall atrium. Tickets are $50 each or $400 for a table of eight. Tickets can be purchased online.

Collaborative effort leads to provincial tobacco prevention strategy

trevor.kenney — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 16:37:23 +0000

When ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge nursing instructor Kathy Haight took on the task of reinvigorating stale and dated tobacco prevention resources for her nursing students, she had no idea it would turn into a provincial initiative that would eventually launch the Academy for Tobacco Prevention.

Alberta Health Services officially unveiled The Academy today as a partnership developed with the U of L out of the Tobacco Reduction Program. The thrust of the initiative is to provide teachers with a comprehensive resource for students in Grades 4 to 6 to help them understand the risks of tobacco use and learn ways to resist pressure to use such products.

U of L nursing instructor Kathy Haight led the multidisciplinary effort to reinvigorate dated tobacco prevention resources for elementary and middle school classrooms.

“The resources that I was using to teach my students were developed in 2003, so they were very dated,” says Haight of the genesis of the project. “So much happens in the tobacco industry in terms of both the production of tobacco products and also the legislation associated with their use. The print-based resources were really outdated and when we talk to nursing students about having current evidence, it was a contradiction to be using these resources.”

So she set out to make them current, interactive and digital. In the end, the lessons and resources they created went far beyond anything she could have imagined, including the interactive card game, Shadows of the Academy, that is right out of Hollywood.

How Haight and AHS got to this point required multiple partners along the way, including multidisciplinary work on campus with the Faculty of Education and Faculty of Fine Arts (new media), as well as collaborative work with Lethbridge School District 51 students and teachers.

The Shadows of the Academy card game is one of the key resources the group developed.

Before the resources hit the classroom, Haight had to enlist the services of Tanaka Mutikani, a new media student intern, to translate the complex graphical imagery into the lessons.

“He was amazing for the project. He really bridged between the technology and the application,” she says. “For Tanaka, it was a really sharp learning curve, working with assets from a professional marketing company, learning new software, and he had all the skills and then some to make this work for us.”

She then took the resources to the school district for a test run.

“The contribution that SD 51 made to this project has been priceless,” says Haight. “Combining their teacher expertise with my health education knowledge we were able to come to some real common ground on what would work for teachers in the classroom.”

Haight and her group rolled out the program in Grade 4 and 5 classrooms at Nicholas Sheran, Dr. Gerald B. Probe and Senator Buchanan schools, while nursing instructors were also able to reach St. Mary’s and St. Martha’s schools. A Grade 6 classroom at G.S. Lakie also served in a pilot scenario.

“It really had to meet teacher needs in the classroom and the way to get to that point was to have them in a focus group,” says Haight.

The most popular of the resources was the card game. It proved to not only capture kids’ attention but also seemed to drive home some key prevention messages.

“We know from our pilot testing that students think The Academy is super cool and teachers think it’s really cool too but in amongst all that flash, is there some substance to it, will it actually help to reduce the use of tobacco in our youth population in Alberta,” asks Haight.

Therein lies the next phase of the project. Once the resources are rolled out province wide, she will work with Dr. Noella Piquette of the Faculty of Education to go back into classrooms to gauge their effectiveness.

“We can provide teachers with health education resources but we have an obligation to test those resources to see if they are making a positive impact,” she says. “Teacher time in the classroom is very valuable so we want to give them the best bang for their buck.”

UNews - Alberta Health Services

Dr. Vivien Suttorp to receive U of L’s Friends of Health Sciences award

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