The co-chairs of the Travers Fellowship Steering Committee, Carleton University's Susan Harada of the School of Journalism and Communication and Ben Travers, announced that Stephanie Dubois, a CBC News journalist and freelance writer based in Edmonton, has been awarded this year's $25,000 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship. The fellowship is administered by Carleton and annually supports a significant foreign reporting project by Canadian journalists or journalism students.
Dubois will travel to the Philippines to explore the overseas recruitment of Filipino nurses by Canadian governments. She will ask whether this practice is a sustainable, ethical solution to Canada's nursing shortage, particularly at a time when the Philippines is facing its own significant nursing shortage.
"Dubois' proposed project speaks to health-care system crises both here and abroad," Harada said. Travers added, "It raises complicated questions about the feasibility of Canada attempting to address its own issues on the backs of other countries."
Dubois' planned series of radio documentaries and online feature articles will be produced for CBC's White Coat, Black Art and the CBC News online platform. She noted that governments in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in particular have accelerated their recruitment drives.
"A shortage of nurses remains a huge issue, with Canadian politicians attempting to attract more Filipino nurses to fill nursing vacancies," she said. "I plan to explore the issue from the perspective of Filipino nurses and their families, and will examine the effects of international recruitment on patient access to the health-care system in the Philippines."
The Fellowship was established in 2011 in honour of Jim Travers, a former editor, political columnist, and foreign correspondent who deeply believed in the value of international journalism. As the latest recipient of the award, Dubois said she will honour his legacy by bearing witness to recruitment on the ground in the Philippines, and just as important, by examining the public policies that allow those efforts to happen.
