SIOUX LOOKOUT – Sandhya Aiyer, one of this year’s recipients of the NOSM University’s Commitment to Clinical Education Award, likes being asked why she’s a physiotherapist.
“Yeah, that’s my favourite question,” she said in a recent phone interview from the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre.
“I’m just so passionate about being able to empower people with regaining their strength and mobility and confidence.
“And it makes me happy to be able to help individuals transform their lives through rehabilitation and make that impact on their well-being. I often call it ‘adding life to years.’”
Physiotherapy helps patients get back to living how they want to live and doing the things they love, said Aiyers, who was presented with the NOSM University award earlier this month.
“So I think being able to make those kinds of impact on my patients is my driving force. It’s one of the prime factors of why I love what I do.”
The Commitment to Clinical Education Award recognizes preceptors (instructors) for “commitment towards the education of health science professional learners in the North,” a NOSM University statement said.
Aiyer, a native of India, began practising physiotherapy 10 years ago and has been at Sioux Lookout’s hospital for a little more than four years.
She is certified in many different areas of physiotherapy, with a special interest in treating spine-related conditions and pain using the McKenzie method, an approach emphasizing the needs of patients.
The NOSM award “came as a wonderful surprise,” she said. “I'm very thankful to NOSM University and the student who nominated me.”
Moving to Sioux Lookout was a big change for Aiyer, who had previously lived and worked in Mumbai, a densely populated city of more than 12 million, and Toronto.
“I think moving to Sioux Lookout has been a highlight of my life,” she said.
“I love being in this town and the fantastic team I work with and the strong sense of community that Sioux lookout has. That keeps me here.
“I've really settled in Sioux Lookout, and I love the work-life balance that it has given me.”
Three other health-care professionals received the Commitment to Clinical Education Award this year: an occupational therapist in North Bay, a Sudbury dietitian and Thunder Bay speech-language pathologist Susan Coulter.
The awards were presented May 9 in Toronto.
NOSM University has educational programs in a range of health-care professions including rehabilitation sciences, dietetics and physician assistants as well as its M.D. program.
