Inside "The Green Room"

| 25 March 2021

This month I’d like to take some time to focus on the tremendous job our education leadership and staff have done in adapting to COVID-19 to ensure that our trainees’ educational and wellness needs have been addressed as much as possible.

It was a full year ago that a wave of rapidly evolving shutdowns swept across the world, with Canada and Ontario being no exceptions. The situation was changing quickly, sometimes even more than once a day, and required quick and constant re-evaluation. Throughout all of this, our program leaders and staff worked around the clock with the best interests of our learners in mind to ensure everyone was safely home and that new learning experiences were in place for those whose plans were disrupted.

The following months were full of changes — a pivot to online learning where possible, the introduction of virtual clinical supervision, the addition of PPE and physical distancing protocols for in-person care and learning, and more.

In July we received our first incoming cohort of residents to this new reality at all of our many sites. Nobody could be certain how long and in what ways these changes would be with us, but everyone was finding creative ways to try to replicate and keep alive the “Queen’s Spirit” that has been such an important part of our learner, faculty, and staff experience for so many years.

The brief lull in COVID cases in the spring and summer allowed for some modified and scaled-back in-person activities to bring people together. Virtual ice cream rounds and online trivia replaced traditional formats. At the undergraduate level, clerkships that had been on hold gradually resumed.

It also became clear that this would be a CaRMS match like no other before. Application and match dates were pushed back, and everything was moved online. Like many others, I was uncertain about this. Would it let us interact with the candidates? Would we all freeze on Zoom, questions partially answered? Would the spirit of our program come through in this new virtual format?

I’d like to thank our staff, including IT support, and all faculty and residents who participated in our first-ever virtual CaRMS for pulling it off and making it seem effortless! It was gratifying to hear our residents speak with the same enthusiasm as ever, and to hear from candidates about the smooth and robust process for providing a great range of ways to learn about our program and to connect with the sites, residents, and faculty. THANK YOU and GREAT JOB!

Dr. Michael Green

Department Head

Department Head Blog

Publish Date

Thu, 03/25/2021 - 11:58

Inside "The Green Room"

Inside "The Green Room"

Recent Posts