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Head-to-head
It is under the theme “Fiers de nos racines et ouverts sur le monde” that the members of the Ordre des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec assembled last November in Saint-Hyacinthe. This text reflects the themes that the President examined in speeches delivered at the 14th scientific congress of the OOAQ.
Proud of our roots and open to the world
French version
Marie-Pierre Caouette, M.O.A.,
présidente et directrice général
In September 1956, Canada’s first school of speech-language pathology and audiology opened at the Université de Montréal and welcomed its first class of six students. Some 52 years later, 35 students in audiology entered the Université de Montréal in September and 140 students began master’s programs in speech-language therapy in one of three programs available in Québec. A fourth school may open shortly.
The year 1974 witnessed the inception of the Québec professional system based on the Professional Code. The Corporation professionnelle des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec (CPOAQ) had 24 members at that time. Thirty-five years later, over 300 audiologists and more than 1 600 speech-language pathologists belong to the Ordre des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec. Our membership will top 2,000 in 2009. Given growth of 110% over the past decade, compared with an increase of roughly 15% in Québec’s population during the same period, we can indeed be proud of our progress for the benefit of Quebecers.
A shared mission
We are all aware that the mission of a regulatory body is to protect the public by ensuring, among other things, that it has access to quality services. We are all part of the OOAQ. Each of us shares in our everyday professional lives the responsibility to protect the public. For this reason, it is essential to take care of our valuable, scarce human capital.
The world of work has changed in recent decades. Organizational changes, scientific advances, technological innovation and heightened competitiveness in teams are but some of the questions that demand considerable ability to adapt. While accelerating change is stimulating, it invariably upsets our professional practice and calls into question our relationships with our partners.
What attitude should we adopt in an unsettling context? How can we adapt, since resistance to change engenders malaise? Is it possible, without relinquishing our values, to participate actively in the change process instead of enduring it?
In an age where time has become a luxury, it is incumbent more than ever on professionals to periodically take a pause to make an introspection and charge their batteries. While the world of work is changing at a frantic pace and professionals are constantly being asked to do more with less, who will take care of the caregivers? Against a backdrop of manpower shortages at a time when we are very much in demand, we must collectively be concerned with our health and job satisfaction. In order for us to feel proud of our roots and open to the world, we must take care of ourselves, since the quality of the services that we offer the public demands professionals who are in good health at ease in their work environment.
The professional is a permanent learner
To protect the public, professionals must voluntarily, actively commit themselves to be permanent learners through a stimulating professional development program. The maintenance of our skills is a duty stipulated in our code of professional conduct. It must be admitted that this is a demanding task in our day-to-day lives. However, professional development is a firmly established culture in our group,(1) of which we can be proud.
The OOAQ’s committees are special partners in the professional development process. The maintenance of professional skills cannot be achieved effectively solely by means of conferences. Skills updating also occurs through active participation in the development of our professions. Whether by means of a contribution to a network of clinical investigation and scientific data pooling through forums, stimulating guidance for trainees or through a committee responsible for broadening knowledge of a specific sphere in our scope of practice, to commit ourselves to contributing to our collective development is an enriching “win-win” approach for professionals, their regulatory body and society as a whole.
Proud of our roots… in a changing professional system
By participating actively in the inception of our two professions, pioneers over the past 50 years have displayed determination and courage, curiosity and scientific rigour, commitment and professionalism. We still share these values today. Québec’s geographic position between Europe and the United States has unquestionably affected our unique relationship with the evaluation of language functions. The distinctive features of the Québec system in the realm
of hearing have also contributed to our specific development. Our initial core training, our solid scientific and clinical foundations and the exacting standards that we have set for ourselves with respect to the development of our skills have enabled us to pave the way for our partners in several fields. Some examples that come to mind are dysphagia, dyslexia-dysorthographia, the adverse effects of noise,
and routine screening for deafness among newborn infants.
Other professions were also established 50 years ago. Like ours, they have changed. Like us, other professionals have proudly contributed to shaping the current Québec professional system, which is unique, and whose specific features are accompanied by numerous advantages and unquestionable tension.
Meet challenges... and remain open to the worldFor several months, workforce mobility has mobilized time and attention. All eyes are on us. Whether in France, Ontario or the rest of Canada, observers are saluting our high quality standards and wish to adopt them. They acknowledge our pioneering work in speech-language pathology and audiology, our initiatives, vision and the specific nature of Québec practice. This attention that we are receiving encourages us to reflect on our place in a changing Québec system. While genuine tensions do exist between the partners in the network, the forceful means adopted to wage certain battles do not always seem the most appropriate to make ourselves heard and fulfil our mission to protect the public. We must sometimes alter certain strategies.
Demographic and economic factors are dogging the Québec professional system. We cannot ignore their impact on the planning of the policy directions that we will adopt to work harmoniously with our partners in a changing world. Through respectful reflection centred on society’s needs, we must ensure that we assert our specific nature as specialists in the realm of human communication while acknowledging that of others in fringe areas. In what way am I unique because of my initial training and acquired skills? That is the question that each member of the professional system must ask himself or herself for the well-being of the population in order to act as confident, constructive ambassadors on a team. We must acknowledge our respective identities and define our common values instead of tearing each other apart in grey areas.
Strong, constructive collective leadershipWhat if the solution is to be fond in the field? While, on the one hand, personal conflicts and corporatist tensions divide individuals and discredit the professional system, professionals have, on the other hand, developed the necessary maturity to find the means to pool their complementary strengths in order to serve the public. Québec has many of these microcosms in which individuals find their place in a spirit of respect and openness in order to offer the public the best possible service and to successfully carry out together the mission to protect the public that is entrusted to us. We must sustain our collective leadership to continue to exercise control over unfolding events. Perhaps the time has come to shift from a top-down model to a bottom-up model to influence decision-makers. Will we be equal to the task of meeting the challenges that we are facing? I am convinced of it. Let us now hope that we will find along the way many partners who, like us, are proud of their roots and open to the world.
Notes Biographiques
Throwing out the baby with the bath water...
