Students benefit from outside perspective
Friday, June 8, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
Some students at George Brown College in Toronto may be considering a career in risk management after a visit from the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC).

Arlene Kraft, HIROC’s risk management manager, spoke to students about common risk management and patient safety themes and practices during the fall 2006 semester.

A member of the faculty of health sciences in the Health Information Management Program at George Brown, Kim Durofil says the presentation was informative for the 43 students in her first-year health information management class.

“I try to give (students) scenarios but when it comes from somebody from outside, it’s always better. They seem to understand it from a different perspective,” Durofil says.

She is also eager to see HIROC return to address future students.

“There were quite a few students that came up to me and asked me what their career pathway would be to get into that kind of position,” Durofil says.

“With the risk management presentation that was given, (students) saw the content we’re teaching them in class is actually useful for different areas of employment,” she says.

Durofil adds it was Kraft’s use of examples from her own career path that got some students interested in risk management.

Since graduating from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and the University of Alberta, Kraft has worked in the quality and risk management departments at three hospitals before being employed by HIROC.

“I get a lot of questions about why (students) need to know this and Arlene’s presentation had sort of summed it up as to the relevancy of what we were doing in class and how it is important in the future if you’re possibly looking at a job in risk management,” Durofil says.

One thing Durofil says they’re trying to impart on the students is how one’s career path can lead them to a number of different positions and job opportunities.

“With Arlene that’s what we had. She showed her career path and how she got to where she is now,” Durofil says.

George Brown is one of several Canadian colleges and universities to receive either in-person or videoconferencing presentations from HIROC’s risk management staff in 2006. HIROC’s post-secondary partnerships are likely to expand to more schools in 2007.