Amazing CaRMS Results for 2013

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to send out a huge congrats to all the soon to be new PGY1s who matched to our site in the first round. We're thrilled that we are fully matched in the first round with 8 excellent candidates and cannot wait to meet everyone! We are definitely brainstorming fun social events for the summer :).
As for the PGY1s, we have all been keeping pretty busy - many of us took part in the CaRMS interview process which was an enlightening and enjoyable experience. Also, we all recently travelled to Kingston for the site wide research day. It was great to be able to see all the interesting projects out there and I think it really inspired all of us for our projects as well.  I find these little trips are also like a mini vacation (unless there's a huge snowstorm lol) and its nice to spend so much time with our colleagues, we usually get the chance to hang out and have dinner as a group which is great.

We recently started our emergency medicine shifts as well as some surgery clinics which have both been highly beneficial.  I know everyone says this but I honestly can't believe how fast time is going - it's been a great year so far!

Congrats again to all the new residents!
-Stephanie

Images from CaRMS 2013 slideshow. Part 3.

And last, but not least, here are some pictures of our simulation facilities in use at the LHEARN Centre this past summer.

The briefing room.

A Nightmares FM scene.

NRP.

To all of this year's applicants, I hope everybody has safe travels over the CaRMS period and best of luck in finding the right matches for yourselves!

Images from CaRMS 2013 slideshow. Part 2.

And here are some images from our self defence course.  It provided some team-building fun as well as some information / skills that are good to have in mind (even though you hope never to have to use them).

A little bit of hair pulling.

Getting it out of our systems?

Harder to explain - I call it, "What to do if you are attacked by a chorus line."

Images from CaRMS 2013 slideshow. Part 1.

We are just in the midst of our CaRMS interview dates this year.  It has been humbling to see people braving the cold (- 27 C last week!) and the snow, rain, and black ice (last night) to find out more about our sites and program.  And as always, it is a wonderful privilege to get to meet so many interesting people and find out the various paths that brought them to the point of having a CaRMS interview with us.

I am just going to take this opportunity to post some photos that you might have seen in this year's CaRMS slides.  I don't seem to be able to get the photos to behave if I post more than three or four at a time so let's just break things up in to bite sized chunks.

Here are some photos from last summer's scavenger hunt.

The starting bench at the front of LHB.

Striking a movie pose at the theatre.  Any guesses as to the  film?

One of the buildings of the downtown campus of UOIT.

2012 FMF: Toronto!

Off to a great start at this year's FMF Education Forum learning about challenges medical learners and new graduates face as they progress through personal and professional transitions and "microtransitions".  Great discussion and hope to incorporate some of today's ideas into our QBOL program.

The times (on call) are a'changing.

Just a quick update today prompted by an article I read in the Medical Post (here's the link - hope it works but I had to log in to get to this article) describing how the CMA passed a motion to limit resident call to 16 hours or less.

The idea of decreasing from 24 hour call seems to be gaining traction across Canada but I know it's a "hot button" topic where effects can range from the obvious (like changes to call schedules) to the more unexpected (e.g. will fewer hours on call in training lead to a change in the duration of training?).

I would not say I have strong feelings either way but am very interested in how this develops as it will affect our curriculum.  This article also mentions that some of the Quebec programs that were early adopters of this type of policy are not that happy with the results so far.

Please leave a comment if you have any insight to share about this.

Camp Oconto - September 2012

Well, last week marked my first visit to Camp Oconto and it was a wonderful experience.  It really was the first chance for the current crop of Queen's FM residents from all sites and all years to mingle as a group.  This was facilitated by the 75% cooperative weather (not counting the program director-powered "hurricane" the first day), the beautiful backdrop of Eagle Lake, engaging speakers, and many enjoyable team-building / communication-enhancing / medical knowledge-testing activities.  Thanks again to the organizing committee - your planning efforts were certainly noticed and appreciated!

I'll attach a few photos here to give a taste of the activities but the photos really don't do justice to the experience.  Or the memories.  It was truly humbling to see how many future family physicians we are helping to prepare.

I can't wait for next year's wilderness medicine experience in Temagami!

Receiving instructions while itching for "lake-time".

A great "classroom" to learn about work-life balance.

High strung teamwork?

An impressive group.

Back to nature.