Physician Teacher Learner

Dr. Sean Groves builds life, practice and community in the north

By Maria Ryhorski

In northern Saskatchewan, where many remote communities struggle to retain physicians, the town of La Ronge is home to a thriving physician group. The Rural and Remote Family Medicine Resident (FMR) Training Program is ever-growing, with 80 per cent of trainees retained and practising in the area. These residents and doctors provide outreach clinics, in-home visits and comprehensive care to the people of La Ronge and the surrounding area. Most are deeply involved in the local community and each provides support to the other, fostering a healthy and sustainable environment in which to live and work.

A thick stack of nomination letters points to the instrumental role Dr. Sean Groves, the SMA’s 2019 Physician of the Year, has played in building such a unique environment for medical learners, physicians, their families and patients in this town perched on the rocky banks of Lac la Ronge.

“As a colleague, Sean is inspirational,” says Dr. Michael Bayda. “He brings an energetic, positive and enthusiastic approach to every day that is contagious.”

Another colleague, Dr. Christo Delport, notes, “In my 32 years of family medicine practice … I have never encountered a colleague so intricately involved in the well-being of the community in general, more specifically enhancing medical, mental health, social and addictions care for the vulnerable, marginalized and aboriginal communities. He engages and embraces people’s needs with empathy and vigor.”

Dr. Nicholas Martel, a former resident with the program, credits his mentor with shaping him as a physician and instilling a deep understanding of how a rural physician can be an agent for positive change in a community.

For me, loving where I work has become so much more than a simple affection for my job and my lifestyle,” he says. “Loving where I work is the commitment to making my community a healthier, happier place to live for everyone who calls the north home. I learned that love from Sean Groves.

Upon learning of his colleagues’ effusive praise and his resultant selection as SMA Physician of the Year, Dr. Groves’ response is humble.

“I don’t really see it as an individual thing,” he says. “I work in an excellent group practice. I have huge support professionally and personally, and I think of the award more as recognition of work in a rural community and rural medicine and the opportunities that that type of setting provides for me.”

La Ronge isn’t a place that the Alberta-born, Saskatoon-raised Sean Groves ever planned to make his home, but when he arrived with his family in 2005, he quickly fell in love with the type of work there and the opportunities to make real change. He, his wife Becky and their four children quickly immersed themselves into the fabric of the community, coaching and playing for local teams, building friendships and developing a deep connection with the land and the water that surrounds them. The family frequently escapes the hustle and bustle by visiting their cabin on a nearby island, paddling on the lake, and letting nature recharge them after a busy week.

Dr. Sean Groves with his wife, Becky, and daughter, Pikaea, in their yard on the shore of Lac La Ronge.

Since arriving, Dr. Groves found northern Saskatchewan to be ripe with opportunity to be creative and put his love of teaching and continuous improvement to work. Leading the FMR training program is one such opportunity that fell into his lap and has since flourished into something that Dr. Groves is most proud of.

When I took over I basically made a commitment that I would try never to say no to anyone who wanted to come,” he recalls. “It’s such a positive aspect of a practice to have people with fresh ideas. These students and residents are often up on the latest and greatest. They know the latest guidelines and a lot of times aren’t afraid to question what you’re doing. And that makes you grow as a physician. You have to explain yourself.

The tendency to question everything is one of the most important traits that he hopes to pass on. “I tell them not to believe anything I say, or what anyone else says. I try to have them think for themselves and understand that medicine is a very dynamic and changing science.”

In the same way, he encourages learners to question themselves and not become complacent.

“Sean has this beautiful way with his students and residents of telling them exactly how it is – including where their weaknesses may lie,” says Dr. Martel. “In the same moment that he points out a mistake or a knowledge gap, he’s likely to crack a joke and let out a burst of laughter that reminds you that learning and personal growth are an integral and life-long part of our profession. This approach has inspired in me a happy enthusiasm to improve my knowledge and skills but has also given me the humility to recognize and understand my limitations.”

A unique aspect of the program is that it does not rely on residents to do the work. This allows them the freedom to shape their learning and be flexible in terms of how they gain experience.

“So they’ve been able to do things like get involved with our high-risk outreach program for populations affected by homelessness, alcohol and opioid addiction, and poverty,” Dr. Groves explains. “They support our Elders Haven here in town, which is a sort of long-term care facility for level two care population. There’s also a group home for developmentally disabled adults that they attend as well … it’s a really good way of being able to see people in their homes rather than always having them come into the clinic.”

All this experience helps residents understand the importance of getting a full picture of their patient – their history and environment – and how that informs care.

I try to give them at least some sense of how Indigenous and settler populations have evolved over the years. I’m amazed at how little most medical students and residents know about the history and how treaty has affected the land and the people – both colonial and Indigenous populations – and how it’s really impacted people’s lives.

Dr. Groves understands the impact all too well since taking over the La Ronge Opioid Agonist Therapy Program in 2014. With the support of the local pharmacy, he removed the cap on participants and the program doubled to support roughly 85 individuals battling opioid addiction.

“Before I got involved, I thought I was doing family medicine right,” he recalls. “I thought I had a good handle on things. But I realize now, after working with people who have significant mental health and addictions issues, that I was missing a lot of really important information by not exploring people’s lives in enough depth. I didn’t understand the real connection between past trauma and current health, family dynamics, and how it really impacts people’s decision-making and their approach to health. It helped me gain a much deeper sense of how important that stuff is and how important it is to explore these things with all the patients I see – not just the ones with addictions issues but all of them.”

This work has left Dr. Groves with a sense of awe at his patients’ resilience.

I think probably the most impressive thing about a community like La Ronge is the incredible strength of its people, who haven’t always come from the best upbringing or social circumstances. To see them rise above challenges in their lives – starting a thousand steps further back than wherever I started in my life and being able rise above – is really incredible.

It’s this observation that keeps Dr. Groves going and inspires him to continuously try to improve the health of his community. The support of his colleagues, whom he feels privileged to work with, also plays a role. “They’ve been incredibly helpful in getting through tough times,” he recalls, “especially in a small town where you feel like, if you make a mistake, all eyes are on you.

“But then you realize that everybody makes mistakes and you try to learn as much as you can from them and support each other when it happens … and most mistakes aren’t really mistakes. They’re just something you didn’t know before, that you know now.” ◆