Queen’s University wants to generate more 'practice-ready' family docs

A new, unique medical education model, specifically designed to address the shortage of family doctors and to graduate practice-ready, community-focused physicians, is set to launch in September. The Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program will be based at the Queen’s University satellite campus at Lakeridge Health’s Oshawa Hospital in Ontario’s Durham Region, east of Toronto. The program is launching with 20 new medical school seats and demand has been strong, according to an article on the Queen’s Faculty of Health Sciences website. “It’s not only student demand, but also meeting community demands—understanding the serious shortage of family physicians in Durham Region, across Ontario, and throughout Canada,” said Dr. Randy Wax, chief of staff at Lakeridge Health. “The need is great for a program like this to accelerate the arrival of well-trained, comprehensive family physicians in our communities.” The program will be integrated with the existing Queen’s Bowmanville-Oshawa-Lakeridge teaching site. Years 1 and 2 of the program are the pre-clinical years, and then in Year 3 students begin their clinical clerkship, completed by April of Year 4, which will be designed to facilitate their transition to a family medicine residency program. The program is designed to prepare students to be highly skilled family physicians prepared to care for patients of all ages in a range of settings including the community and the hospital. “It’s going to be community-based. The student experience will emphasize patient and community relationships,” said Dr. Richard Van Wylick, vice-dean of Health Sciences Education at Queen’s Health Sciences. “Learners will develop longer-term relationships over time spent based in a defined population, which is at the heart of family medicine.” Dr. Van Wylick said there has been a lot of interest from other communities and schools across Canada who are watching and interested in the program’s success. The program will be successful, he said, “if we graduate more family physicians in the province of Ontario. It'll be successful if we create new excitement around being a comprehensive family physician and the prestige that comes with that career. It'll be successful if our students graduate having told us they've had a fabulous experience and an opportunity to work within a health system that supported and nurtured them.” The program will work with the specialist physician faculty to ensure a focus on what the students need to know as family physicians of the future. For example, students will specifically be taught the skills to stabilize patients in future, smaller hospital settings where FPs are expected to provide the initial care prior to a transfer to larger facilities. “We are working with faculty who are family physicians who will not only teach the content but also model what it's like to be an excellent family physician for these new students,” said Dr. Wax. “The curriculum can also be much more efficient as we focus on the learning needs of students who we know will become family physicians as opposed to having too many potential career options,” he added.

Queen’s University wants to generate more 'practice-ready' family docs

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