A book to retrace the history of French-speaking medical training in NB.

With the book From dream to realityauthors Daniel Bourgeois and Dr. Aurel Schofield wanted to bring together all the significant moments that led to the creation of the New Brunswick Medical Training Center (CFMNB).

Published this year by Éditions de la Francophonie, the work explores the beginnings of the project up to the creation of the first Acadian medical school.

When you read the book, you see that the medical school was built backwards. We started by offering internships in family medicine to develop our medical human resources, which brought a very good return on resources. These resources have developed medical educationsays Dr Aurel Schofield.

In 1980, there were not enough French-speaking doctors in the region to offer a complete medical program.

We had a few French-speaking doctors who could offer internships and French-speaking students, so we had to build these medical education resources without unbalancing health services in French.explains Dr Aurel Schofield.

The school, we started at the end, with the family medicine program and when the resources were numerous enough, we were able to open the school with the complete program, in 2004.

Over the years, this journey has been documented and Dr. Schofield has presented his writings numerous times. However, this is the first time that the story is found in a book.

We took the community impact assessment plan for medical training centers, which has now been around for 20 years.he said. We can now provide data that supports our evaluation framework to see how the center, with its strategic plan, has succeeded.

A success beyond expectations

Twenty years after the start of project development, the impacts are now felt and firmly anchored in the community.

The progress is considerable: the project has acquired a dual mandate, namely to provide quality medical training in French in the region and to contribute in its own way to the vitality of Acadia.

We see that he has succeeded very, very well and even beyond my expectations, it is incredible now the development that we managed to make during this period.rejoices Dr Aurel Schofield.

We also see how solid the project is, how it is of quality, how it is anchored in the community and how it meets the needs of the community. So it’s an excellent basis for the future and the book, I think, demonstrates this very well.he continues.

Recruitment and retention efforts have had very significant benefits at the medical training center.

We already had a very good result before the opening of the school, but the opening of the school gave a much stronger momentumnote le Dr Aurel Schofield. Students are much more comfortable applying to do the course, because it’s local and they don’t need to separate from their families.

Since 2023, the school has accepted students from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In 2024, the first students in the psychiatry program will graduate.

The retired doctor is particularly pleased with the impact that the research group has had CFMNB which was beginning to take shape at the time of his departure a decade ago.

We look today, ten years later, there is a range of research projects being carried out close to the communityhe adds.

A dream come true

For Dr Aurel Schofield, telling this story also demonstrates that it is possible to do great things.

Thus, the title of the book, From Dream to reality is evocative. But you still had to believe in it and think big, since the Acadian medical school serves a minority community, he says.

It is a unique case of its kind, when we take into account the historical, sociolinguistic, medical and political context which allowed its establishment.

I had so many obstacles in my way, I encountered so many walls that it was very difficult for me to imagine that one day I was going to succeed, that we were going to succeed in having our medical school.admit Dr. Aurel Schofield.

We had to make our way, we had a program that was there in hospitals, but we didn’t have walls, we didn’t have a place.

Ultimately, it was the 1999 Francophonie Summit that succeeded in bringing together several partners and allowing federal funding to complement that offered by the province.

We have become a very important player in the health field, we had to make our placesays Dr Aurel Schofield.

Ultimately, the significant events written in Dream Come True ultimately allowed the project to come to fruition.

According to the report by Jimena Vergara