Let’s simplify
confirming your appointments with the click of a button.
Brunswick
Medical is excited to offer our new appointment system: NAVA MedQ.
Easily confirm
or cancel your appointment from our wide varieties of specialists at three of
our clinics.
Manage
appointments at your clinic or view information such as our address, contact,
directions and hours of operation.
Check
availability provided and the services offered. Click on “CALL” to check their
availability. It’s that simple.
Manage your
appointments on the selected tab in the application.
The
application’s integrated maps allow you to find the best route wherever you are
so you can arrive right on time with ease.
Making an account is easy. All we need is your cell phone number, email and health card number. The same information we have on file, all submitted ahead of time, from you at home.
NAVA MedQ will
also let you know what to bring to the clinic for your appointment.
You’ll have
access to forms you may need to fill out ahead of time. No need to use that
clipboard in the office because you can fill it out online. Once the form is
completed, press send and the clinic will add it your file. It’s all digital.
The clean and
user-friendly prompts are for all ages.
Simply log onto
NAVA website or download for free directly on your phone using The App Store
(for Apple) and Google Play (for Android).
The 2019 movie “The Farewell” tells a tale of the clash between Western and Chinese cultures. A young woman, Billi, is told to say goodbye to her grandmother in a northern Chinese city, but cultural norms forbid her from discussing the terminal illness of the family elder due to cultural differences. The movie dances around the topic of advance care planning (ACP) quite a bit. In the end, it is a movie about the power of family. Some things are never explicitly said, but what is wanted by the family is for Billi’s grandmother to have a good quality of life, rather than dwell on the end of it.
In the Western world of medical practice, physicians view East Asian culture as having a very different point of view on health and death. There may be much taboo surrounding the discussion of death; it is often viewed as a bad omen. It is crucial in Chinese culture for patient relatives to be involved and for some patients to forego autonomy. End-of-life care may be discussed in private. But in agreement as a family.
There is often stigmatization of East Asian culture’s view of end-of-life care. Studies show that oncologists spend significantly less time discussing end-of-life care with patients from non-white cultures compared to white patients. From a Western perspective, not informing the patient of terminal diagnosis could seem cruel and unethical, as it feels that the patient’s autonomy is not being respected. In China, it is inconceivable for the average patient to receive diagnosis terminal illness alone. Patients are mostly accompanied for moral support.
Moreover, there may be some difficulty navigating the medical system for East Asian patients. Some patients are too scared to sign any level of care documents, given that they fear doctors may not attempt to save them when the time comes. Behavioural scientists have shown that some Chinese patients may appear overly polite and agreeable, when in fact they are merely deferring to the authority of their treating physician.
The relatives of patients at times feel tremendous guilt, and burdened with responsibility as the substitute decision-maker. Sometimes, ACP is not discussed at all, so as not to discourage the inflicted, for the patient to not lose hope. It come out of a kind place for the patient to perhaps enjoy his or her end of life. Other times, relatives of patients act selfishly and want the patient to try everything possible. They are therefore biased and may not have the patient’s best interest in mind. Some small studies were done in China, which found that ACP increases the expression of end-of-life care and decreases decision-making conflicts.
There is a lack of knowledge or education about advance care planning. Elderly Chinese patients in Canada often live within their own community and are more isolated and lack access to appropriate information. In a 2018 Hong Kong study, the majority of seniors had never heard of the term. Patients are more likely to have ACP once they are informed about what it is.
As a physician, it can sometimes be challenging to engage family members in an end-of-life care discussion; we are often more focused on treating the patient and not the family members. However, we need to create more opportunities to discuss end-of-life care with patients of all cultures. There is a lack of general education for physicians to recognize ethno-cultural meanings of illness and disease. Emphasizing patient autonomy and overlooking the value of family could lead to end-of-life care being unsatisfactory. There is no easy solution for cultural differences in end-of-life planning and it is okay to involve family members to actively participate in the discussion. It is acceptable for patients to defer decision-making to their relatives as long as they can consent and discuss their wants and needs.
Having worked with elderly Chinese patients, I do draw on what I have learned from the movie. It is helpful to shift perspective and respect the cultural differences of my patients in terms of advance care planning.
In the end, we all want to be loved; we want to be surrounded by our loved ones as much as we can, especially in our final moments. In the case of the movie, not knowing may very well have been the wish of Billi’s grandmother. And that was what we understood. As long as the family understood the wish, inner peace could be reached, and they could heal and grieve as a family.
We currently serve a lot patients daily in Urgent Care. Once the system is fully booked, the clinic does not have the capacity to add more bookings to the schedules. The only way to see a doctor is to try again on another day until you manage finding a spot.
Due to COVID_19, we have a tremendous increase in patients coming to the clinic. As an extra safety measurement, we had to split our Urgent Care clinic to serve symptomatic patients. This results in all doctors’ spots to be filled up in quickly.
If you have an URGENT situation and cannot wait to be seen in our clinic, we then recommend to go to the nearest urgent clinic in a hospital to be seen by a physician.
Rest assure that our medical crew do their utmost effort to see the maximum number of patients every day.
I would like to congratulate our nurses on their tireless efforts and dedication that they have provided our West Island community and beyond this past year during the pandemic. Our nurses have displayed tremendous strength, courage, and heroism that nursing week should be celebrated year round! To give you an idea, our nurses care to approximately 6,000 patients a week and have not stopped once during this pandemic. Please help me in thanking our Brunswick Medical Nurses for all their hard-work and fearless patient care they have provided to each and everyone of us. Thank you, you truly are the beating heart of the medical system!
Happy Nursing Week from
Rosemary Makhoul, RN BScN Head Nurse
And all of administration of Brunswick Medical Staff
