Emancipation Day
Today (August, 1), we commemorate the 190th anniversary of Emancipation Day, the day in 1834 when the Slavery Abolition Act became law throughout the British Empire, thereby ending the practice of slavery for millions of African people and their descendants around the world. Given official designation in Nova Scotia in 2021, it's a day of celebration, education and inspiration, recognizing the resilience and contributions of African Nova Scotia communities.\
For more information about Emancipation Day and events happening throughout the province, visit https://emancipationdayns.ca.
Taking Sports Medicine to the Olympics - Dr. Tina Atkinson is in Paris with Team Canada Canoe/Kayak
Dr. Tina Atkinson would be an excellent ambassador to advise young Nova Scotians about chasing your dreams and catching them, right here at home. A native of Shelburne, she wrote an essay about being a sports medicine doctor in High School and dreamed of going to the olympics as a young person. She has achieved this goal many times over with her illustrious sports medicine career.
After helping Team Canada win gold in Hockey at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Dr. Atkinson is back for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris with Team Canada as the team doctor for canoe and kayak competitors.
She is at the Olympics following a highly successful year of being the Chief Medical Officer for the inaugural Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL), a league with many familiar faces from the 2022 Gold Medal winning Canadian Women's Hockey Team.
When not practicing sports medicine with elite athletes around the world, Dr. Atkinson practices emergency and sports medicine in Central Zone.
For more about this dynamic doctor, read this recent CBC article about her experience at both Olympic Games.
Best of luck to you and the athletes you support Dr. Atkinson. We are rooting for you at home.
In other news, Dr. Atkinson was inducted to the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in June.
New Order Continuation form now available to support Continuing Care Orders
Since the release of the new combined Continuing Care Order and Referral form in June for healthcare providers to create orders for Nova Scotia Health Continuing Care clients and/or to refer them to Continuing Care, we have received additional feedback from providers at Nova Scotia Health and IWK Health that more space is needed for larger orders.
To support providers, we have added a companion Order Continuation form to the Electronic Forms Repository (EFR). Providers are asked to submit the new Order (includes Referral) form as usual. If they need more space, the Order Continuation form can be completed and sent in addition to the Order form. The box should be checked on the Order form when an Order Continuation form is included (see image below). Additionally, the Order section of the Order form now includes space for a name as well as a signature.
Perioperative Network News
The latest Perioperative Services Network Highlights are now available, highlighting key topics covered at the June network meetings and other related updates. You can also subscribe to new updates and see past issues here.
Throwback Thursday: Halifax Medical College
While looking on the Halifax Public Library's blog about postcard archives, we ran across, this postcard (above), dated July 1908, featuring a photograph taken of medical students standing in front of the Halifax Medical College.
The back side of the postcard (below) features a message from Dr. A.M. Johnson (pictured to the right, courtesy of the Dalhousie University archives) to a female friend in Amherst, NS.
Dr. Johnson graduated as part of the Class of 1911, the year the Halifax Medical College was reintegrated into Dalhousie University.
"The Halifax Medical College was founded in 1875 as a semi-independent medical school, run entirely by general practitioners. It was located on the corner of College and Carlton Streets, across from where the Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building stands today. By 1911, after a push for more research-based, academic-focused medical instruction, the Halifax Medical College was more or less dissolved and became fully integrated with Dalhousie University."
Here we are in August 2024, 116 years later, looking forward to the launch of the Cape Breton Campus of Dalhousie Medical School (a partnership with Cape Breton University) which will be focused on family practice and rural medicine.
Read the full newsletter here.