Postgraduate Report

  • Vaccination update for Residents: With our Family Medicine Residents rotating to different sites and services each block, it is essential that Residents reach out to their rotations approximately one month before their rotation starts to determine any requirements and documents needed to join their rotation on time (such as hospital application forms, confidentiality forms, and vaccination documents). Contact information for your block preceptors/admins can be found in the Handouts and Links tab in One45. As all of our Family Medicine residents are LHSC Hospital employees, they are to follow the current LHSC COVID vaccination policy for employees in addition to any governmental requirements. Reminders have been sent to Residents via their UWO email to ensure that their vaccination documentation is uploaded to the Occupational Health website at LHSC. Please monitor your emails for any important updates. 

  • 2022/23 Schedule update: PGY1s, we are already working with our FM sites and services to plan your second year schedule! On September 2, we emailed all returning residents a personal link to the PGY2 Preferences Survey. The process of scheduling is complicated. Rotations may only accommodate a certain number of residents per block. Residents with their eyes on an Enhanced Skills year may want to frontend electives to strengthen their application. We consider everything from the survey results and try to provide residents with electives that reflect their interests.

    In past years, we issued two surveys: 1) the Pre-Scheduling Survey (targeting rural and Emergency Medicine preferences) at the end of October with the deadline a week later, and 2) a more comprehensive second survey asking about electives, which came out in November. In total, residents had three weeks to decide what rotations wanted for their second year schedule. This year, we consolidated the two surveys and provided 9 weeks to complete the survey, so that you have ample time to consider your options, get guidance from your Faculty Advisor, and carefully make your choices. As well, with more time to reflect, we hope to minimalize changes to the schedule. These changes can be disruptive to services, especially if they have set their schedules and booked patients for you to see.

    Please talk to your Faculty Advisor about your goals and options. You should be getting together with your Faculty Advisor in block 3 or 4 for a Periodic Review.

    In October, we are planning to give a talk for residents during an Academic Half Day to explain the scheduling process further. As well, your Family Medicine Resident Council is putting together information sessions for you about the different Enhanced Skills programs here at Western University.
    Please complete your PGY2 Preferences Survey by November 5, 2021. As always, if you have any questions, please email us at fmpgc@schulich.uwo.ca.

 

  • Faculty Advisor Program: The purpose of the Faculty Advisor Program is to provide longitudinal mentoring, and educational support and guidance for our residents. Residents will have been assigned a Faculty Advisor, the Faculty Member who will be supervising during family medicine block training. Residents should contact their Faculty Advisor and arrange to meet three times per year. The meeting should be scheduled in October (Periodic Review Forms will be available in One45 in early October). Off-cycle residents may have a differing timeline. In preparation for the Faculty Advisor meeting, residents are asked to log into MyFM. There will be a tab under “Resident Assessment” where residents can download the Periodic Review Form with associated data from MyFM already populated. Before meeting with their Faculty Advisor, Residents should download the form and reflect on the relevant areas as indicated within the Periodic Review Form. During the meeting, the Resident and Faculty Advisor will complete the Periodic Review Form together within One45.

  • Postgraduate preceptor evaluations: Preceptor evaluations have been released through One45. Our preceptors have been provided with a summary of the anonymized evaluations submitted by the residents over the previous few years. We appreciate everyone’s commitment to the teaching of our residents! 

 

  • Postgraduate rotation descriptions: We have been connecting with our rotation leads across SouthWestern Ontario to update their rotation descriptions on our website: https://www.schulich.uwo.ca/familymedicine/postgraduate/current_residents/clinical_rotations/index.html Rotation descriptions are important as they provide a good depiction of what the learning experience will look like for our residents. Some rotations are a core experience while others might not be core but a rotation where we get many requests from residents for placement. An updated rotation description helps residents understand expectations during their rotation with you and also is an aid for determining their preferences when selecting electives.
  • CaRMS 2022: CaRMS interviews will proceed in a virtual format in 2022. The CaRMS national interview period is: February 28, 2022 – March 20, 2022. Stay tuned for more information.

  • Professional Development Opportunities: Visit the Working Virtually website for more information and registration instructions, or to watch recordings of previous Microsoft sessions. Preceptors may wish to register for the below meeting regarding leading interactive meetings!

    Leading Interactive Meetings Using Zoom Date: September 28th, 2021, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Register Now to secure your spot.