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284 International Journal of Circumpolar Health 66:4 2007 Distance education for inuit smoking counsellors ShORT cOMMUNicATiON DiSTANcE EDUcATiON FOR iNUiT SMOKiNG cOUNSELLORS iN cANADA: A cASE REPORT Merryl Hammond 1, Cindy Rennie 2, Jennifer Dickson 3 1 Consultancy for Alternative Education, Baie d’Urfé, Quebec, Canada 2 P.O. Box 2043, Iqaluit, Canada 3 Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, Ottawa, Canada Received 10 October 2006; Accepted 10 July 2007 ABSTRAcT Objectives. To describe a pilot program to implement and evaluate a part-time, community-based distance education course for Inuit smoking counsellors in Canada. Study design. Case report. Methods. The distance education course used mailed resources, e-mail correspondence, confer- ence calls and individual telephone calls. Evaluation of participant satisfaction at the end of the pilot program used e-mail questionnaires. Results. Seventeen out of 21 (81%) students successfully graduated. Fourteen of 16 respondents would recommend the course, and all 16 respondents reported that they were ready to conduct both individual and group counselling for smokers who want to quit. Both learners and their supervisors reported very high levels of satisfaction with the course. Conclusions. Using distance education with adult Inuit learners worked very well. The very high completion rate achieved in this pilot program proves that there is great potential for the use of culturally affirming, structured yet flexible, learner-supportive approaches to training and capacity development in the Arctic where distances are so vast, travel costs are prohibitive and extreme weather often prevents people from attending face-to-face workshops. (Int J Circumpolar Health 2007; 66(4):284-286) Keywords: smoking counsellors, Inuit, distance education, Canadian Arctic 285 International Journal of Circumpolar Health 66:4 2007 Distance education for inuit smoking counsellors iNTRODUcTiON In 2005–2006, the Government of Nunavut (GN) funded Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada to train 10 smoking counsellors using distance education. Health Canada (HC) funded a parallel Pauktuutit pilot project in Nunatsiavut and Nunavut to train an addi- tional 12 smoking counsellors using the same course. It is these 2 courses that we report on in this short article. MATERiAL AND METhODS Profile of course participants The students were Inuit learners living in remote Arctic communities.1 Eighteen of the 22 were women. Twenty were Commu- nity Health Representatives (CHRs) or social service workers, and 2 were nurses. One resigned from her job and so did not complete the course. That left 21 participants eligible for the evaluation. Learning materials and methods Students studied three books and videos: “Healing from Smoking: a step-by-step guide for smokers” (1), “Smoking Sucks: Kick Butt!” (2) and “Helping Smokers Heal: a guide for counsellors” (3).2 The course ran from October 2005 to March 2006. Each section was followed by a conference call (or individual “make-up call”3). Students completed projects, deadlines for which were kept flexible to take into account the realities they faced. Finally, an open-book, written test was submitted. Evaluation An independent Inuit evaluator (CR) evalu- ated student and supervisor satisfaction. The response rate for students (n=20; this excludes one person who was away on adoption leave) was 80% (16 total). For supervisors (n=4), it was 100%. RESULTS Seventeen of the 21 students graduated (81%). Fourteen of the 16 respondents (88%) would recommend this course to colleagues. Thir- teen (81%) said they would sign up for a future distance education course. All sixteen (100%) felt competent to conduct individual and group counselling. Six (38%) were “very satisfied” with a distance education course compared with a face-to-face workshop. All 4 supervisors (100%) would unani- mously recommend the course to colleagues. DiScUSSiON Using distance education with adult Inuit learners worked very well. Both students and supervisors rated this course extremely posi- 1 Only two of the students on this course lived in a community (North West River, Nunatsiavut) with road access. All the rest lived in remote fly-in communities. The trainer was in Montreal. 2 Copies of all these materials are available from co-author MH at: Consultancy for Alternative Education, 6 Sunny Acres, Baie d’Urfé, Quebec H9X 3B6, Canada. Tel: 514-457-4347. Fax: 514-457-4840. <info.cae@mac.com> 3 Reasons for missing conference calls included: illness, vacation leave, meetings or workshops, family crises, commu- nity crises including suicides and communicable disease outbreaks, and in one case, “The weather is perfect for hunting today!” 286 International Journal of Circumpolar Health 66:4 2007 Distance education for inuit smoking counsellors tively. The very high completion rate (81%) proves that there is great potential for the use of culturally affirming, structured yet flexible, learner-supportive approaches to training and capacity development in the Arctic. Despite the small sample size, these preliminary results can probably be general- ized to other Canadian Inuit health and well- ness workers. They face similar barriers to education and have similar cultural, social, economic and educational backgrounds. Furthermore, many of the issues that affected us in developing this pilot project (vast distances, remote communities, language and literacy barriers, urgent need to develop skills and capacities in community-based Indig- enous workers, limited funding, etc.) will be relevant to educators working in many other circumpolar regions. We urge other educators to consider distance education. Since the time of writing, the GN contracted Pauktuutit to offer another distance education course for an additional 6 smoking counsel- lors during the early months of 2007. All 6 (100%) have now graduated. Acknowledgements Health Canada and the Government of Nunavut are acknowledged as funders. Thanks to our students, colleagues at Pauktuutit, Catherine Carry, Kelly Loubert, Tanya Butt, Charlotte Wolfrey, and Rob Collins. REFERENcES 1. hammond M. healing from smoking: a step-by-step guide for smokers. Kuujjuaq, Nunavik: Nunavik Re- gional Board of health and Social Services; 2002. 100 pp. Also available as a 24-minute DVD. 2. hammond M. Smoking sucks: Kick butt! Kuujjuaq, Nunavik: Nunavik Regional Board of health and So- cial Services; 2005. 77 pp. Also available as a 24-min. DVD. 3. hammond M. helping smokers heal: a guide for counsellors. Kuujjuaq, Nunavik: Nunavik Regional Board of health and Social Services; 2002. 88 pp. Al- so available as a 24-min. video. Merryl Hammond, Ph.D. 6 Sunny Acres, Baie d’Urfé, Quebec H9X 3B6 CANADA Email: m.hammond@mac.com
