Oh Canada 2011

In 2011 the conference followed the PAEA conference in the USA on to Montreal Canada at the beginning of a very cold November, the conference moved to the vibrant city of Montreal Canada, where we were once again inspired by some excellent keynote speakers and the challenge of how we embark on developing reusable learning objects, to shape the development of global standards in healthcare quality, through sound educational learning of our students. Canada, did a wonderful job, in welcoming delegates from many countries and ensured the debate and learning continued to grow.

For IAPAE, Canada was a significant turning point; the first elected Executive board was announced under the Presidency of Dr Emanuel Teye Adjase (Ghana). The Executive board consists of Vice-president Daphne Cohen (Netherlands), Mike Dryer, Treasurer (USA), Nadia Miniclier Secretary (USA) and Karen Mulitalo Director at Large (USA). The Board is supported and challenged by the Founding Board of Trustees, who have the role of ensuring the values, vision and objectives of IAPAE are maintained. The Board of Trustees are Professor Dana Sayre Stanhope, Chair (USA), Professor Philip A Begg, Vice Chair (UK), Professor Nick Ross (UK) and Professor David Fahringer (USA). This was a very exciting meeting and the organisation had now moved towards a new chapter in its history and new governance arrangements, with a Board and responsibility and accountability to the membership.

Our Keynote speakers this year were Karen Mulitalo, who had been one of the pioneers in developing the PA profession in Australia, and was now back in the USA, Nick Ross, who was Associate Professor in Birmingham England who had led the development of the Department of Health’s Competency and Curriculum Framework for PAs, and the final speaker was Mr Ian Jones, who was a leader in PA education in Canada, and had also pioneered the profession in Canada. Josephine Berkvens shared the excellent work she and the team in Utrecht had been doing on EPAs and the way in which this had transformed education into practice.