CPSA’s work towards safe, accessible health care
Expected read time: 8 minutes.
Accessing health care is inherently vulnerable—even more so for patients who may experience discrimination when seeking care. In 2024, CPSA introduced a series of internal initiatives aimed at deepening our team’s understanding of the diverse healthcare experiences and challenges faced by patients in Alberta. From cultural safety training and accessibility audits to inclusive hiring practices and educational sessions on topics like respectful communication and unconscious bias, these efforts support our mission to protect patients by strengthening how we guide physicians and physician assistants.
Keep reading to learn how these initiatives are shaping a more informed, respectful and responsive CPSA—ensuring we’re better prepared to support regulated members and the patients they serve.
CPSA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Throughout 2024, CPSA’s internal Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee led several key initiatives to promote and advance equity, diversity and inclusion at CPSA. While CPSA has an external committee dedicated to anti-racism and anti-discrimination, the goal of our internal committee is to ensure our team members have the resources and information they need to best protect patients in Alberta—CPSA’s mandate under the Health Professions Act (HPA). The EDI Committee also plays a key role in ensuring CPSA’s work environment is safe and accessible for everyone.
“In Professional Conduct, we interact daily with Albertans and regulated members from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, often discussing sensitive and vulnerable topics. The resources and education provided by the EDI committee help me approach each of these interactions through a trauma-informed, EDI lens, and give me tools to help create a safe and accessible space for Albertans to bring forward their concerns, in the hopes of contributing to a sense of safety and trust within the healthcare system.”
Courtney, Intake & Resolution Officer
San'yas Core Indigenous Cultural Safety Health training
There are more than 250,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit people living in Alberta, making up approximately 6.5% of the population (2022). It is CPSA’s responsibility to ensure each and every one of those patients receives care that is not only physically safe, but culturally safe, too.
In spring 2024, members of CPSA’s EDI Committee had the opportunity to complete the San'yas Core Indigenous Cultural Safety Health training, which covered topics such as colonization in Canada, social and structural determinants of health, the impacts of discrimination and stereotyping on Indigenous people in health care contexts, and much more.
Committee members shared overwhelmingly positive feedback on this course and have been discussing ways to implement their learnings at CPSA. It’s critical that our team members are aware of the health inequities facing Indigenous patients so we are better equipped to develop guidance related to patient safety, such as CPSA’s Advice to the Profession on Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination.
“As someone who works on developing and updating standards of practice, I now have a greater understanding of which areas, specifically, we need to address when creating these documents for physicians and physician assistants. Having appropriate and relevant standards of practice is the foundation for ensuring Indigenous patients receive the safe, equitable care they deserve.”
Chantelle, Program Manager, Standards of Practice
Expand the accordions below to learn how we’re making CPSA a more inclusive workplace:
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In early 2024, CPSA’s EDI committee brought forward a recommendation to recognize a greater breadth of significant calendar days. The recommendation was to provide a floating statutory holiday to offer our team members more flexibility for religious, spiritual, or otherwise significant days they choose to acknowledge.
Based on this recommendation, we converted the CPSA-granted statutory holiday on Easter Monday into a floating statutory holiday, meaning team members could choose to take Easter Monday off or work on Easter Monday and use their floating statutory holiday for a different observance like Eid al-Fitr or Lunar New Year.
We received great feedback on this pilot initiative and are happy to be offering it again in 2025—in fact, more than 30 team members will be using their floating statutory holiday on a day other than Easter Monday in 2025.
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Based on a recommendation from the EDI Committee, an accessibility and universal design audit of CPSA’s office was completed in July 2024. The purpose of the audit, conducted by accessibility consulting agency Level Playing Field, was to understand how the current design of our physical space may be inadvertently creating barriers for our current and future team members.
The audit provided extensive feedback on how CPSA can update our office space to be more accessible, which we will be implementing as part of our upcoming office renovations. Increased signage and the installation of automatic doors in key locations are just a few of the improvements we’re making to support team and visitor health and safety. Based on the audit’s findings, CPSA’s office can be expected to receive a score of approximately 66%, passing the 60% minimum requirement for Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification.
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At CPSA, we want to ensure our workplace environment is free from bullying and discrimination, where respecting our teammates is the norm. Pronouncing someone’s name correctly is one of the most basic forms of showing respect for others. In some cases, mispronouncing someone’s name, especially if done deliberately, is considered a microaggression—a subtle form of discrimination.
With a growing team and a hybrid work environment, it’s not always possible to learn the proper pronunciation of someone’s name before we meet them, which is why CPSA launched a name pronunciation tool in 2024. The pronunciation tool enables team members to submit a soundbite pronouncing their first and last name, as well as stating their preferred name if they have one (e.g., a shortened name instead of their full name or vice versa). This initiative has been a huge success, with over 50 team members submitting their name pronunciation for our team directory.
Education sessions
Throughout 2024, CPSA’s EDI Committee hosted several lunch-hour education sessions on topics like accessibility, inclusive language and managing microaggressions. These education sessions ensure our team and organization are moving towards CPSA’s strategic direction of becoming an anti-racism anti-discrimination organization. The learnings we gain from these sessions have countless applications in the work we do every day, from policy and Standards of Practice development to more informed interactions with members of the public and up-to-date guidance for physicians providing clinical care.
CPSA team members who attended these sessions consistently shared feedback that the sessions were relevant to both their role and CPSA’s strategic directions. In fact, when speaking about their work in CPSA’s Professional Conduct department, one team member said, “[This] presentation will help me navigate conversations with physicians who may not be aware of how their comments around disability impact patients.” In this example, initiating a conversation and highlighting a new perspective for a physician can lead to an immediate and positive impact on a patient’s healthcare experience.
Several of the sessions were available to not only CPSA team members, but also CPSA Councillors, Assessors and employees of other provincial regulatory colleges. CPSA continues to lead by example, ensuring we have the tools to address racism and discrimination in the workplace and in healthcare settings across the province.
Truth and Reconciliation education opportunities
First Nations, Métis and Inuit patients in Alberta face significant health disparities. Alberta Health publishes health data annually, comparing life expectancy for First Nations people in Alberta to non-First Nations people. Alberta Health’s latest report (Dec. 2024) reveals the gap in life expectancy between these populations is now 19.1 years. In addition, a 2023 survey found that explicit anti-Indigenous bias was present among Albertan physicians.
CPSA team members exploring the Indigenous People's Experience at Fort Edmonton Park on Sept. 17, 2024.
It is crucial that CPSA team members understand the current and historical inequities facing First Nations, Métis and Inuit patients in Alberta so we can reflect on our processes and identify better ways to support Indigenous patients, guide the regulated members who care for them, and improve the regulatory environment for Indigenous physicians. Read more about CPSA’s Path to Truth and Reconciliation here.
Leading up to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30, 2024, CPSA offered a variety of meaningful and immersive learning opportunities to help team members educate themselves and continue working towards CPSA’s strategic direction of authentic Indigenous connections. Nearly 80 CPSA team members registered for several interactive workshops, more than 90 attended presentations by guest speakers, and 46 team members participated in a day of learning at the Fort Edmonton Park Indigenous People’s Experience. The depth of offerings and uptake by team members demonstrates that CPSA is not just “checking a box”—this is a long-term commitment to listening, learning and reconciliation.
“Participating in CPSA's Truth and Reconciliation education opportunities has provided space to reflect on historical and current inequities facing First Nations, Métis and Inuit patients in Alberta. Through these meaningful learning experiences, I am better equipped to support Indigenous patients in my day-to-day work, while also advancing CPSA's overall commitment to reconciliation and authentic Indigenous connections.”
Tara, Customer Experience Specialist
Changes to recruitment process
At CPSA, our strength is in our team. To make sure we have the best people for the job, CPSA recently made some improvements to our recruitment process.
CPSA’s People & Culture team developed an application rubric that assigns points based on education, experience, designations and application content (i.e., grammar, spelling, language) for each candidate. Every application is reviewed and scored against this rubric according to the required qualifications for each position. The highest-scoring applications have all personal or identifying information redacted (i.e., names of educational institutions, international education institutions, countries) before being forwarded to the hiring leader for review. This process helps ensure that candidates are selected based on their education and relevant experience, while also reducing potential unconscious bias.
In addition to these changes, we have also included questions in both our pre-screening calls and interviews that focus on how candidates contribute to creating an inclusive work environment and how they collaborate with individuals who have differing perspectives and ideas. These diverse perspectives are what lead to innovation, improved problem-solving and a greater understanding of the physician and patient populations we interact with every day.
Our values
We do the right thing
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We make informed decisions
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We empower people
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We collaborate
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We are innovators
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We enjoy and find meaning in our work
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We do the right thing — We make informed decisions — We empower people — We collaborate — We are innovators — We enjoy and find meaning in our work —
At CPSA, everything we do is rooted in our vision, mission and values.
By living our organizational values and supporting equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, we fulfill CPSA’s mission of ensuring everyone in Alberta receives the safe and high-quality health care they deserve.
