day in the life of a family physician resident: learning more to serve diverse communities
toronto metropolitan university and the william osler health system have created a unique approach to training family physicians, one that's geared toward clinical and soft skills that benefit mosaic communities.
6 minute read
dr. christopher haddad is currently in residency with tmu, and is learning everything from hard clinical skills to leadership and communication.
alyssa k. faoro
dr. christopher haddad was born and raised in north etobicoke, on and brampton, on, so when he was given the chance to take his medical school residency in his hometown, he was thrilled.
christopher was raised by his parents, both immigrants from lebanon, who came to canada to make a better life for themselves and their children, including christopher and his sister.
growing up with his parents, who came to canada with little to nothing and only spoke arabic, allowed him to develop a passion for medicine while also striving to make things a little easier for people of other cultures to access care in the country.
“there were a lot of social issues with my family actually navigating the system, and so we were growing up, our first language was arabic, but when we went to school, we slowly started understanding the canadian culture and speaking english,” he said. “we had to help my family.”
christopher’s family wasn’t alone, and there are still many immigrant families who embark on new adventures in canada, only to find that access to healthcare isn’t as easy or seamless as it could be.
dr. marina malak, the director of assessment and director of competence for toronto metropolitan university’s family medicine and family medicine enhanced skills program, understands the intricate relationships that exist between those who are new to canada and the healthcare system. she notes that cultural context is a significant piece of their overall residency program.
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“we are very much passionate about the idea of integrating communication and strong relationships with our communities, keeping in mind a cultural perspective, and that’s critical,” she said. “they (the residents) get to understand not just our communities, but our populations, and there’s such a broad and rich population in the brampton and surrounding regions, whether it’s culture, whether it’s religion, whether it’s gender, whether it’s values.”
she notes that, in the tmu residency program, individuals like christopher can utilize their skills to serve the region in a way that benefits everyone who needs a family physician, including people like chris’ parents, who found it challenging to access healthcare in a meaningful way in a new country.
masters of everything, including complex and culturally-rich communities
after graduating from the university of toronto with a kinesiology degree, christopher realized he wanted to broaden his horizons in the world of medicine. he initially went abroad to study, but when an opportunity came up for him to come back and serve his community, he jumped at it. he wanted to be immersed in the broad field of family medicine.
“we’re not specialists per se, but we are a specialty in and of itself. we have to really know a little bit about everything in order to apply our skills, and as a generalist, you really need to gain many soft skills and also core clinical skills,” said christopher.
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the program at tmu is designed to bring together the brightest minds from diverse backgrounds to create a mosaic of family physicians that reflect the community they serve by focusing on both core and soft skills.
dr. hemant shah, vice president of academics at william osler health system, tmu’s primary clinical partner, sees the tmu-osler partnership as one that can truly benefit the community, as well as help the residents become the best family physicians they can be.
“we are able to offer residents an early kind of immersive clinical experience at one of ontario’s most diverse sets of communities and dynamic community hospitals,” he said.
he also noted that the program and partnership’s setup in family medicine will enable them to stand out by offering the most exposure to complex needs in underserved communities because it is “focused on helping medical learners achieve their set of skills, knowledge, attributes that are required to practice medicine in a way that is truly productive for population health.”
the goal of the residency is to ensure that family physicians, who are expected to be knowledgeable in a wide range of areas, are even more prepared to serve the community by becoming masters of everything, both in clinical and non-clinical education. they do this through a teaching and assessment model known as competency-based medical education (cbme).
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“it focuses on the individual … pieces of what it means to be a physician rather than the more traditional approach to medical education, which is after a certain period of time, you graduate,” said dr. shah. “we are going to be the training ground, the fertile soil where the residents will get this high volume, real-world exposure, where we can ensure that these competencies are being developed.”
according to dr. malak, “a family doctor is a specialist in literally every specialty that you can think of,” and that is why they need the cbme model to ensure that those residents are ready to spread their wings when it’s time to fly out into the community.
“the range of medical information and skills that they need to have is so broad, and that becomes the challenge,” she said. “you want to make sure that the competencies that we develop for our residents and our programs are broad enough so that they cover the important things.”
she also notes that the essential things are not just how to treat patients and other hard skills, but rather, like how to communicate with patients, how to advocate for patients, and how to approach each patient with both expertise and care.
for residents like christopher, the experience so far has been “amazing” because not only has he gotten the chance to socialize and meet other people with the same passions for family medicine, but he’s also gotten the opportunity to learn new leadership skills and put them to work in the community.
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“as someone who’s heavily involved in leadership, both in my pre-medical degree, during my medical degree, and currently, i really want to always apply my leadership skills and always be in a leadership role,” he said. “i was recently elected as the inaugural professional association of residents of ontario general council representative for tmu, and i’m really happy to step into this role as a leader for my residency specifically.”
christopher also notes that among the other soft skills he’s learning, empathy, communication and teamwork all stand out as vital pieces of the puzzle to improve patient care and patient outcomes in the community.
“empathy, which as you can imagine, is kind of the bread and butter of medicine,” he said. just being empathetic with our patients … that’s really important,” he said.
stepping into lifelong learning and creating long-term bonds
the tmu residency program and partnership with osler aren’t solely focused on preparing students for becoming family physicians, but instead teaching them how to learn on the job, which is a lifelong practice in medicine.
with newer advancements constantly being developed, these doctors will have to harness the ability to adapt and evolve with technology and the future of medicine. it’s all about introspection, according to dr. malak, which is an important part of the learning process at tmu.
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“the idea of self-reflection to see what am i doing well and how can i optimize and maximize, and maybe share that with others, and what is something that i can improve on and how do i actively and proactively make learning plans and learning goals in order to improve my efficiency, efficacy, productivity,” she said. “that’s rooted within our program where residents are encouraged to reflect on those.”
as the residents are learning, people like christopher also get to see what it’s really like to be out in the community, and that, in and of itself, makes the program unique.
“we’ve already started building lifelong relationships with patients that we’re going to be seeing for the next two years, so honestly, it’s been great,” he said.
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