When there is no clear-cut answer to be found, how can health professionals provide competent and compassionate care? Dr. Stella Ng was motivated by her clinical experiences to study how health professionals learn to practice well in response to the complexities of people’s lives, the health system, and society. Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and various foundations, Stella has explicated what health professionals do in value-conflicted, uncertain, and unstable zones of practice. Informed by this research, Stella applies and studies transformative education approaches to support health professionals in being reflective practitioners and agents of change.
Dr. Ng leads and develops curricula, for clinicians and faculty, from local-level to massive open online courses. Currently she sits on a provincial practice advisory committee to set standards, partners with several health professions associations to mobilize knowledge, and consults internationally to inform a clinical teacher education program. She became a registered audiologist in 2006; and while practicing, earned her PhD in Health Professional Education and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in medical education.