As an occupational therapist in the rural area of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, since 2007, 33-year-old Anne Marie Bishop was acutely aware of her lack of access to a medical library and journals, something she had enjoyed as an undergraduate student at McGill University. “I found I had many clinical questions and none of the tools to answer them,” she says. That curiosity and a desire to improve her educational credentials attracted her to the Master of Rehabilitation Science (MRSc) program, which she began in 2009 and from which she plans to graduate this spring, 2013.
However, as a new mother of now – 17 month old twin boys, Bishop needed flexibility in order to consider the program. Doubling up on her course load when she started in 2009, she was in the middle of her major project just before giving birth. Needing a delay with her newborn babies, “the flexibility of the instructors made it work,” she says.
Bishop has been able to tailor her project on admission and discharge criteria in dementia care units, involving the Resident Assessment Instrument, to her work environment at the Crowsnest Pass Health Care Centre. “The master’s experience has really helped me to translate knowledge, and to focus on ways to disseminate knowledge,” she says. She has also become an active educator, making several presentations to colleagues on topics such as resources for clinical educators, how to become better prepared for teaching students and how to use statistics in clinical practice.
“The way I approach clinical work has made me feel better placed to communicate to fellow professionals through presentations. Presenting to all of the occupational therapists in the region is not something I would have done before,” she says.
She also enjoyed the opportunity to interact with international students from the U.K., New Zealand and parts of Asia during the program.
Overall, Bishop praises the flexibility of the program. She also says that “it is better than other distance programs because you have to keep up with the online postings. The technology that allows us to do this is amazing.”
By Heather Kent