Community News: Dr. Susan Batten
FACULTY PROFILE
1. Where were you born and raised?
I was born in a hospital in Winnipeg and raised just outside Winnipeg near the town of Oakbank. At 12 I was dragged kicking and screaming into the suburbs of Winnipeg where I stayed until I ran away to India at 21...and never looked back.
2. What degree(s) do you have, and from what university (ies)?
I came to medicine later in life, before that I travelled, lived in northern Canada, worked as a personal support worker, a pharmacy assistant, a medic in the military, and other fun things before I figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up.
I have a degree in International Development Studies from Trent university that allowed me to focus my learning on heath and development. I spent a year of my degree in Ghana working with a non-governmental organization (NGO) providing health care in the slums of Accra.
3. What special interests or hobbies do you have?
Traveling, canoeing, camping, biking, adventuring - particularly happy when I can combine it all with work (like our recent family trip and my locum in Iqaluit), and combine it with family (like when we took a 75 day tent camping road trip with my three children, one just a week old, two dogs, and our little Mazda 5 from Ontario across Canada and up to Alaska and then to British Columbia and home).
4. Where do you practice medicine and in what scope?
Rural generalist in Hanover with a focused practise in palliative care. Secondary level palliative care consultant with the Grey Bruce palliative outreach team. Board member of the hospice of Grey Bruce.
5. Why did you choose to pursue teaching at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry?
I love what I do, I truly feel that medicine and specifically rural medicine is a calling, not just a 'job'. I want to share my passion and love with others and maybe, just maybe, spark excitement in them to think of this path.
6. What inspires you in your work?
Humanity. I have the privilege to be a part of the most inner circle of people's lives, their birth, their death, and all the speed bumps inbetween. People inspire me everyday, to be better, kinder and to remember to be grateful for what we have. Thus to strive to help those who have less.
7. What has been your greatest experience to date in your career as a faculty member?
Uh, I love to work with others, to share ideas, laughs, learning together. I feel I have still so much to learn, and when I work with other learners we all learn more together.
8. What do you do when you aren't working?
Haha sleep. Home with my family, or camping, canoeing, adventuring somewhere with my family. Or at our farm property that we are currently renovating as the old farmhouse needs a big fix, planting trees, taking care of a garden. Enjoying my community being a part of my community in Durham where I live.
