Today I’d like to focus a bit on the importance of family medicine in the delivery of the MD program here at Queen’s and nationally.
While many family medicine departments have a good sense of what their postgraduate training contributions are, the undergraduate side is often less understood, but equally important. There is good evidence from across Canada and around the world that increased exposure to family medicine experiences, particularly longer or integrated experiences in clerkship, is positively associated with students choosing family medicine as a career.
Exposure to family physicians as leaders and role models early in medical training is also important. Today’s DFM Monitor includes announcements on the appointments of two of our faculty members to leadership roles in the Queen’s Health Sciences MD curriculum. They are joining a strong and growing team that we are happy now includes more community-based faculty as well as full-time academic faculty from the department.
Dr. Shayna Watson, our undergraduate program director, has been taking on more and more leadership roles. Now serving as the director for longitudinal integrated clerkships, she is welcoming some relief from multiple roles with Dr. Meera Ruparelia taking on responsibility for the core FM clerkship. The MD program has also expanded its commitment to supporting training for students on pathways to careers in the Canadian Armed Forces, and Dr. Matt Simpson will be assuming leadership for that program.
Drs. Ruparelia and Simpson are joining a team of outstanding teachers and leaders who are already in place delivering excellent ( and award-winning!) education and support to our MD program students.
In discussions with our MD program associate dean, Dr. Eugenia Piliotis, I am hopeful that we will see more opportunities to contribute in the coming years. There are certainly changes and challenges to be addressed. I recently returned from the International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM — formerly the Canadian Conference on Medical Education) where there were some outstanding sessions on the need to change our selection and admissions processes for medical schools, both to improve representation of under-represented groups and to bring more students who are both interested in, and well suited for, family medicine and other generalist careers into our programs.
I remember years ago, when I was a new faculty member, Dr. Mike Sylvester reminded us all about the critical importance of connecting with our undergraduate learners. “We love medical students!” was his mantra then, and it holds true just as much today as it did then. I hope you will all keep your eyes open for opportunities in the MD program, big and small.
Thanks again for reading and for being a part of our family medicine team — we couldn’t do what we do without you!
Dr. Michael Green
Department Head