2024 Election - Director, Alberta Candidates

Hannah Wiens

Bio:  While born and raised in Alberta, Hannah has had the distinct privilege of living in multiple Canadian provinces, spanning coast to coast. But something about Alberta just keeps bringing her back. Hannah has enjoyed a long and storied non-traditional educational background in everything from performing arts to sexual health to social science before eventually finding herself at McMaster University’s Physician Assistant Education Program. Hannah has a proven history in advocacy from her previous work with the LGBTQIA+ and disability communities, the skills from which she is proud to bring to her work with CAPA.

Letter of intent:

I hope to seek re-election to continue to serve Albertans in advancing the PA profession. As many are aware, following a term as Alberta Alternate Director I was appointed to the position of Alberta Director in March 2024. This occurred following our previous provincial director’s decision to step down.

From application to graduation from the Physician Assistant Education Program, I knew I wanted to return to my home in Alberta. I also knew that I wanted to practice to the extent I was taught - I wanted negotiated autonomy, I wanted to be a crucial part of team-based care, I wanted to prescribe the way I was trained, I wanted to bring value to my future practice, and I wanted to make a difference in the lives of my patients. As Alberta director, I have begun to network with and hope to continue cultivating relationships with the Minister of Health, the Alberta Medical Association, Addictions and Mental Health Alberta, First Nations medical groups to name a few. It is my belief that PAs need to have access to equitable and efficient funding strategies within and outside of AHS to reach their full potential. This is a priority.

Beyond this, I hope to continue to support CAPA’s efforts to have PAs added to the Controlled Substances Act. I also hope to see a closer approximation of wage parity within similar advance practice roles in the province. I also hope to support University of Calgary and its forthcoming graduates in addition to the development of future PA programs within the province.

Above all, I hope to incorporate the feedback of PAs in Alberta to foster a collaborative environment. Our profession has come a long way and I’m excited to see where it may go next.

Franklin Marquez

Bio:  I’m Frank Marquez, a Physician Assistant, currently working at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, AB, in orthopedic trauma surgery. I’m an alumni from the University of Toronto from 2011 where I was both the class president and inter-professional representative. I had a 13 year career in the military that spanned a great career and where I met many of you previously. Since then, I’ve been very fortunate to have worked in multiple provinces, countries and disciplines to experience the unique aspects of a PA. Whether in ED/trauma, neurosurgery, occupational health, or teaching, I’ve been fortunate to experience great aspects of program developments, the negatives and encouraging others to pursue the field. I’m excited to take the opportunity to run for a provincial director. I was the vice president in New Brunswick and have taken leadership roles in teaching residents, junior physicians, medical students and PA students. I have a desire to enhance the PA role towards its full capacity. I’ve volunteered in Africa teaching physicians and assisted in creating PA programs overseas. In my spare time, I train and compete in Ironman at a high level and have twins on the way! As busy and chaotic that my life may seem, my passion to make PAs the frontier healthcare practitioners is always welcome. With the multitude of experience from different phases of my career and life, I plan to make the most as a potential Director with transparency and my full commitment!

 Letter of intent:

I’m running for CAPA Director, Alberta in 2024. My intention in running for Director is to bridge the gap between the military trained and civilian trained PA’s to form a transparent and united front. I have many ideas to utilize technology to develop the field and to enhance the capacity of advanced practice practitioners. Rural medicine continues to be a significant challenge for both patients and the healthcare model, I want to propose virtual care capabilities to the government to allow both; PA’s to work in rural communities with access to supervising physicians in hub hospitals and encourage more virtual care practices that could be lead by PA’s from the comfort of home or a hospital.

I want to establish guaranteed employment for the new graduates to avoid competition against experienced PA’s. This was a model I went through and I’m sure others from Ontario had as well. The prospective students will be taking a chance on a new career in Alberta as the first students. We should give them the security to enter practice and know what their value is to the healthcare system.

I plan to have open communication with hospital zones and the government to lead a proactive approach towards our pay scale. Instead of having conversations when the majority of practicing PA’s have entered the final tier of pay to await a plan to increase our salary, I want to establish possible streams for increasing our pay to compliment the amazing work we do, but also to not be lost in inflation. Whether this is a step up in the band, avenues for bargaining, or another proposed idea, I plan to be transparent with conversations and have expectations set prior to last minute bargaining that is retroactive.

After discussions with fellow colleagues, it’s been a common theme that outpatient orders either can’t be ordered or have adequate follow up due to not having a PracID number. Many of us have multiple supervising physicians we work with and occasionally, the results may be lost in their inbox and the patient may feel like they’ve lost continuity of care by having an alternate healthcare practitioner follow up with them; not having the rapport or background information.

Lastly, I would try to implement a quarterly or bi-yearly journal club or alternate PA CME online based program for Alberta. Whether we help initiate the new graduates, have an opportunity to discuss a unique case. We could have a Zoom meeting that meets the criteria for CME and make it recordable for those who may not be able to attend.