Chair’s Message
This is the first edition of our Newsletter for the calendar year, so I'd like to start by wishing each of you the very best for 2015. As we start off 2015, I want to celebrate and thank our community-based faculty – family physicians, outside of the tertiary care centre, who provide teaching both in the classroom and in the practice setting. You are the face of family medicine for our learners at all levels and I sincerely thank you for your efforts.
What are the various aspects you consider as a community-based teaching family physician in our Department? I know that mostly you are in this because you enjoy teaching and want to experience the satisfaction of giving something back to the system, and, most importantly, you want to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes to the doctors of tomorrow, with whom you interact. Of course you also have the ability to use the library resources at Western and to be paid for your time. There is the prestige associated with being an Adjunct Faculty member in the University, and soon, although this still needs to be ratified, there is the strong possibility that community-based faculty will be able to seek promotion at the University under the new Conditions of Appointment, coming into force later this year.
Perhaps there are specific opportunities for teaching that would appeal to you. I encourage each of you to remind yourselves of the different opportunities available to teach by accessing our website for a full list.
Despite increasing numbers of community-based faculty, there are still times when we struggle to find teachers for all of our learners. At some universities there have been attempts to define a minimum commitment to teaching for community-based faculty. For example, an average of 50 hours per year, chosen from a variety of teaching opportunities including clinical supervision has been suggested.
I would be very interested in your feedback. What do you think of this? What does it mean to you to be a community-based faculty member at Western? Please message me at stephen.wetmore@schulich.uwo.ca.
