Nov 24, 2023

OLA Spotlight: Get to know the Learner Experience Unit

The PGME Post

The Learner Experience Unit (LEU) was founded in May 2020 as a resource for medical students, residents, and clinical fellows who witnessed or experienced mistreatment. This year, the LEU has expanded to support clinical learners across the health professions at Temerty Medicine including Medical Radiation Sciences, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Physician Assistants, Physiotherapy, and Speech Language Pathology.

Over the past 3.5 years since its establishment, in partnership with learners, the LEU has revised its Learner Mistreatment Guidelines and created webpages to help guide learners, including an online disclosure form where learners can submit in an identified or anonymous manner.

Learners that reach out to the LEU can connect to discuss, disclose or report:

Discuss: when you meet with someone in the LEU to talk about, debrief, or unpack an incident or experience.
Disclose: when you convey information to the university to seek information about your options, including for safety, support, or alternative administrative arrangements.
Report: when information is escalated through the LEU to relevant leadership with the intent that the university formally reviews and potentially acts upon the information.

It may take a few meetings for learners to identify what they need from our unit; and it can all begin with a confidential conversation.

The LEU team strives to work using trauma-informed and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Indigeneity, and Accessibility (EDIIA)-informed approaches that recognize mistreatment as resulting from power asymmetries. This is critical given the higher burden of mistreatment experienced by learners from structurally marginalized groups including learners identifying as Black; Indigenous; racialized; women; individuals identifying as 2SLGBTQIA; individuals experiencing antisemitism; individuals from minoritized faith groups experiencing, for example, Islamophobia; and individuals living with a disability; among other groups and their intersections.

As a unit within the Office of Learner Affairs (OLA) the LEU upholds the OLA vision to “work with learners, at individual and systems levels to optimize the learning environment and experience, and enable their development into accomplished health care professionals.”

We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you of the many services offered by the OLA to support you personally, academically and professionally:

OLA offers free and confidential supports:

Personal counselling with our Learner Life Specialists.
Career planning / counselling with members of our Career Advising Team.
Wellness supports, including mental and physical health supports.

OLA also provides guidance and support with:

Accommodations / Accessibility
Leaves of absence / Return-to-work planning
Academic difficulty
Program transfers
Learner experience / mistreatment
…and general navigation of resources

OLA’s resources are offered both in-person and virtually
Hours: Monday – Friday, 8:45am – 5:00pm (4:30pm July/August)
Some evening hours are available with our Learner Life Specialist; enquire for options.