On October 19th and 20th, around 120 members of the Department of Family Medicine gathered on Zoom to participate in the annual retreat, this year under the theme of 鈥淓mbracing the Future, Shaping the Change鈥�. A big thank you to everyone who attended this two-day event which included 16 workshops, 15 speakers, 4 prize winners and one fabulous organizing committee!
Marion Dove, MD, Chair of the Department, started the retreat by welcoming people and presenting the newly launched , the groundwork of which was laid exactly one year ago during the 2022 annual retreat. The report presents our new vision, mission and values that we as a department have been collaborating together on and also highlights the extraordinary accomplishments we have achieved.
After these opening remarks, Kannin Osei-Tutu, MD, founder and President of the Black Physicians鈥� Association of Alberta, kicked-off our first plenary session with his talk titled 鈥淚gniting Change: Centering Shared Humanity and Inclusive Compassion 鈥� Towards Greater Social Justice in Medicine" which was followed by a Question-and-Answer session.
His presentation which was both timely and insightful, created a lively discussion. The statement 鈥渨hat you stay silent about is what you promote鈥� was a key take-away by Dr. Kannin Osei-Tutu, who is also a family physician working in acute in-patient medicine caring for patients with diseases related to socio-political inequity and marginalization.
A wide variety of workshops
In the second part of the afternoon, participants were then divided into seven different workshops, which were offered twice:
- Workshop 1: Sustainability Issues and Changing our Practice presented by Drs. G Theriault and Roland Grad, 污污草莓视频 University.
- Workshop 2: Physician Practices that Impact the Environment by Drs. Caroline Laberge and Maxine Dumas Pilon, 污污草莓视频 University.
- Workshop 3: Team Building presented by Prof. Hartley Jafine, McMaster University.
- Workshop 4: Mentorship: Vital to Our Vitality presented by Dr. Michelle Elizov, 污污草莓视频 University.
- Workshop 5: Indigenous Heath: A toolbox for cultural safety presented by Profs. Alex McComber and Richard Budgell, 污污草莓视频 University.
- Workshop 6: Communications in Palliative Care presented by Dr. Justin Sanders, 污污草莓视频 University.
- Workshop 7: How does research drive change? An overview of research projects in the department with various speakers.
Supporting residents鈥� transition to practice
The following day, Keith Todd, MD, 污污草莓视频's Family Medicine Navigator for the Outcome of Training Project, presented the morning鈥檚 plenary with his talk titled 鈥淐urriculum Change in Family Medicine: Supporting Residents鈥� Transition to Practice鈥�. Thanks to Sandra Fournier, our new Program Administrator for the Outcome of Training Project, all participants learnt about a new collaborative tool called Mural, the results of which will be shared soon.
Participants were then divided into workshops to work on the following three tasks:
- Describe the goals of the outcomes of training project and its impact on our department.
- Identify areas of need in faculty development to support the new curriculum.
- Develop innovative ideas for curriculum renewal to support resident transition to practice.
During the various breaks of the retreat, a photo contest, a pop quiz and even a desk yoga workout, were organized - all of which helped the participants feel connected despite the numerous computer screens!
Here is a and a collage of all the photo finalists:
Thank you to the retreat organizing committee, namely Marion Dove, Myl猫ne Arsenault, Catherine Jarvis, Alexandra De Pokomandy, Keith Todd, Kennedy Kanyang鈥檕nda, Maria Morrison, Marie Moucarry, Sandra Fournier, and Nina Schmauch, who all did a tremendous job putting this retreat together. See you all again next year!
听
