Faculty engagement and wellness
A key role of the Postgraduate Medical Education Office (PGME) is to provide support to program directors, family medicine site directors and other postgraduate medical educators. Over the past year, PGME has offered a series of workshops covering everything from a general overview on how PGME can support our residency programs to detailed workshops on the pre-survey questionnaires. Building on the work of the working group on Best Practices in Application and Selection, we have offered workshops which focus on the file review and a secondary workshop focusing on interviews. With the release of the CanMEDS 2015 Teaching and Assessment Tool Guide, Susan Glover Takahashi, co-author of the guide, and her team delivered two workshops on how to make the Tool Guide work for your residency program. In an effort to further embed Resource Stewardship into postgraduate training programmes, Dr. Anne Matlow organized a full day retreat where Dr. Brian Wong, now Associate Director of C-Quips (Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety) provided a talk on the fundamentals of Resource Stewardship and Dr. Wendy Levinson, Chair of Choosing Wisely Canada delivered the keynote address. PGME also hosted Dr. Fedde Scheele, Vice President of the College for Medical Specialists, the Netherlands, on managing change while implementing CBME.
Physician wellness was another important area that PGME supported programs and faculty this year, with the Office of Resident Wellness (ORW) offering 10 workshops to support faculty with their own well-being and performance. And while faculty wellness is an important goal in its own right, evidence indicates that faculty well-being also significantly contributes to the well-being of medical trainees. How? Faculty wellness is positively associated with faculty engagement in trainee education; and having engaged teachers has been strongly connected with the satisfaction and well-being of medical trainees. Moreover, these wellness workshops for faculty were designed to increase faculty members’ confidence and competence in teaching medical trainees skills related to physician health and resilience. By supporting faculty members, in these ways, the ORW continued to contribute to a common framework for understanding and practicing wellness and resilience across the physician lifespan.
The ORW workshops for faculty included departmental faculty development sessions, the New Program Directors Development workshops, and programs affiliated with the Centre for Faculty Development, such as Education Scholars Program and New Emerging Academic Leaders. Workshops focused on team work, leadership, managing energy, and transitions in medical training. The inaugural Fostering Professionalism and Humanism course, which contributed to the understanding of faculty wellness and its influences on learner education, also launched last year.
A full list of our 2015-16 workshops:
| Date | Title | Speaker / PGME Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Sept. 24, 2015 | Program and Site Director Development Workshop | All units |
| Oct. 6, 2015 | Family Medicine Pre-Survey Questionnaire | Accreditation Team |
| Oct. 8, 2015 | Transitions and Milestones | Resident Wellness |
| Oct. 28, 2015 | Team Work, Prosocial Behavior and Attuned Leadership | Resident Wellness |
| Nov. 17, 2015 | Best Practices in Applications & Selection (BPAS): File Review | Drs. Linda Probyn, Susan Glover Takahashi and Caroline Abrahams |
| Nov. 19, 2015 | Resource Stewardship Retreat | Strategic Initiatives |
| Nov. 23, 2015 | Professionalism and Humanism: “Faculty Well-Being and Renewal” | Resident Wellness |
| Nov. 26, 2015 | Royal College Pre-Survey Questionnaire Workshop | Accreditation Team |
| Dec. 1, 2015 | Education Scholars Program: “Managing your Energy” | Resident Wellness |
| Dec. 2, 2015 | Implementing CBME: Tips and Tricks for Supporting and Surviving the Change Process (with Guest Speaker Dr. Fedde Scheele) | Research and Education |
| Dec. 16, 2015 | BPAS: Focus on Interviews | Drs. Linda Probyn, Susan Glover Takahashi and Caroline Abrahams |
| Jan. 22, 2016 (Rpt May 18) |
Tips and Tricks for Implementing CanMEDS 2015 and CanMEDS 2015 Tool Guide | Research and Education |
| Feb. 9, 2016 | Education Scholars Program: “IMG education: the good, the bad and the ugly” | Resident Wellness |
| Mar. 24, 2016 | Communication Skills Faculty Meeting | Research and Education |
| Apr. 28, 2016 | North York family medicine faculty development: “Support for the resident in difficulty.” | Resident Wellness |
| June 3, 2016 | DFCM Barrie site: “A hitchhikers’ guide to resident challenges and how faculty can support their success” | Resident Wellness |