About Us
By First Nations. For First Nations.
Our Vision
We are the leaders expanding health management capacity for First Nations.
Our Mission
To provide leadership in health management activities by developing and promoting quality standards, practices, research, certification and professional development to expand capacity for members and First Nations.
Our
Story
Traditional knowledge is fundamental to healthcare for First Nations Peoples. Health managers working with First Nations need a First Nations written curriculum.
By First Nations for First Nations.
And this is where our FNHMA story begins.
With a clear consensus that increasing capacity of First Nations Health Managers was key to improving First Nations health service delivery at the community level, the FNHMA was formed in 2010.
Our mandate: is to design and deliver training, certification, and professional development to individuals who have a role in providing health services to First Nations.
Over 14 years later, FNHMA remains the only national, professional association exclusively serving the needs of individuals working for or aspiring to health management positions with First Nations organizations and communities. By offering a rigorous program leading to the Certified First Nations Health Manager (CFNHM) professional designation, we have helped to imbed a credible curriculum that is relevant, current and that applies directly to the health services that are being delivered in our communities.
But while FNHMA offers the curriculum, it is the health managers that bring the relevance, real-life health experience and journeys.
It’s all about balance
Because what we do, how we do it, and why we do it – is always about balance. Real-life health experience and journeys balanced by management principles. A rigorous curriculum balanced by a supportive, caring and safe learning environment. Credibility balanced with humility. We learn together. We learn from each other. Across nations. The voices and wisdom of Health Managers who are the FNHMA family. Together, building a stronger health care system for the First Peoples of Turtle Island.
It is through this careful and skilled balance of honoring and upholding inherent ways of knowing with ensuring adherence to sound management principles, that First Nations health managers are supporting their communities to be healthier and stronger. To survive…and to thrive.
The Certified First Nations Health Manager designation is not an award that hangs on a wall. It is about community. It is about narrowing the gaps so true reconciliation can begin. It is about family.