Daniel T'seleie
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 22/05) - After working in the Rankin Inlet Health Centre for more than 30 years, Marie Tiktak is very familiar with the system. But as a clerk/interpreter she was never solely responsible for dealing with patients.

Carol Ann MacNeil, medical radiation technologist at Baffin Regional Hospital, plays the role of a patient as Leesa Mikijuk, radiography worker and clerk/interpreter, demonstrates how a portable X-ray machine works. Twelve health care workers from around Nunavut recently received their Basic Radiography Worker Certificates and are qualified to use this X-ray machine, which can be found at every health centre in Nunavut. Mikijuk helped instruct the course, which spanned almost two years.

This is the case throughout Nunavut. The potential of experienced workers in health centres, familiar with the patients and fluent in Inuktitut, to help patients was not being utilized.

That is one reason the Government of Nunavut partnered with several Inuit organizations to train 12 workers in health centres as basic radiography workers, also known as X-ray technicians.

The program, which was broken into three phases over two years cost $248,000. The new workers graduated in Iqaluit this month, along with two assistant instructors who can help teach the course in the future.

"They'll certainly make a difference to the effect that they're out in the community," said Carol Ann MacNeil, a medical radiation technologist and ultrasonographer at Baffin Regional Hospital.

Including this year's graduates, 42 people have received their Basic Radiography Workers Certificate through this program.

They are qualified to take X-rays of the limbs and the chest or abdomen. More complicated X-rays - of the back or skull for example - must be taken in Iqaluit.

Busy times

The graduates will still be "very busy," MacNeil said. She estimates 75 to 80 per cent of X-rays can be taken in the community by the radiography workers.

"There are a lot of patients that need X-rays," she said.

Numbers vary, but Tiktak estimates 15 to 20 people come in each week for X-rays. She is the only permanent radiographer in Rankin Inlet.

The course provided lessons on anatomy and the machines the workers use, said Joapie Killiktee, who first took the course in 1999, but completed his training this year as an assistant instructor.

This year's graduates did "really good," said the Pond Inlet resident.

Remembering terms in English can be difficult, and so is translating them into Inuktitut for unilingual patients.

"At first it was hard, but as you get along it was easier," Tiktak said. "It's almost like when you're looking at a caribou. That's how I remember parts in Inuktitut."

The extra staff will help an already strained health care system.

"Nowadays, it's better to have people working all the time because there's lots of people who need X-rays," Tiktak said.

Training workers who will stay in their home community is a benefit of the program.

Sanikiluaq's Johnny Iqaluk said he is definitely going to stay and work in town. Iqaluk works as a caretaker at the health centre, but jumped on this opportunity to further his education.

"It's nice to learn," Iqaluk said.

Every graduate now has the necessary knowledge for the job and their Basic Radiography Worker Certificate, but in the event they run into problems they have plenty of help available.

They can contact the Baffin Regional Hospital to speak with someone from the diagnostic imaging department, or they can call one of the other graduates in another health centre. They also have a book on anatomy, radiation protection, and correct positioning for X-rays.

"That's their bible when they go back to their settlements," said Leesa Mikijuk, a basic radiography assistant and clerk/interpreter at Baffin Regional Hospital who helped instruct the course.