Continuity in UBC Undergraduate Medical Education: Did We Throw the Baby out with the Bathwater?
Cary Cuncic MD, FRCP(C), FACP, MSc, MMEd
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Regional Associate Dean, Vancouver Fraser Medical Program
University of British Columbia
Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Time: 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Hybrid: Life Sciences Centre 1312 CMR & Zoom
*To kick-off the 2022-2023 Cutting Edge Speaker Series, if you are on the UBC campus on September 13, we invite you to please join us for some light refreshments and networking starting at 11:30am in the Life Sciences Centre Room 1312.
Zoom Details: For connection details, please email ches.communications@ubc.ca.
Abstract
Continuity is a well established principle of medical education. Through organizational innovations such as longitudinal integrated clerkships, numerous preceptor and student benefits of continuity have been articulated. They include students acquiring well developed patient centredness, delivery of and acceptance of constructive feedback, increased levels of student responsibility and confidence in working through ethical dilemmas. Continuity was a major pillar of UBC’s Curriculum Renewal project, and several working groups were established to inform best practices. Out of these working groups came the recommendation to establish Academic Learning Communities at the Vancouver Fraser Medical Programme (VFMP). Due to timeline and other constraints on curriculum renewal delivery, Academic Learning Communities (“the bathwater”) were not feasible, and in addition, no innovative continuity (“the baby”) was implemented. Unsurprisingly, multiple evaluations of UBC’s undergraduate medical education have revealed that we did not achieve our goals of continuity with curriculum renewal. In addition, there remains a lack of meaningful relationships at VFMP between faculty and students.
The inaugural implementation of the Fraser Medical Cohort in August 2022 provides us with an opportunity to reconceptualize continuity at VFMP. Recommendations, thoughts and ideas will be sought throughout the presentation. Diversity of opinions are welcome!
Biography
Dr. Cary Cuncic is a CHES clinical educator fellowship alumnus. She completed her Masters in Medical Education from the University of Dundee. Her thesis, with Dr. Joanna Bates as one of her supervisors, examined the impact of preceptor – student relationships in UBC’s Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships. Dr. Cuncic is a practising general internist at Vancouver General Hospital and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine. She is the current Regional Associate Dean of the Vancouver Fraser Medical Programme. She lives in a crowded East Vancouver home with her husband, three boys (“the boys”), dog and cat (“the girls”).
The Division of Continuing Professional Development, University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine (UBC CPD) is fully accredited by the Continuing Medical Education Accreditation Committee (CACME) to provide CPD credits for physicians. This one-credit-per-hour Group Learning program meets the certification criteria of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and has been certified by UBC CPD for up to 15.0 Mainpro+® credits. Each physician should claim only those credits accrued through participation in the activity. CFPC Session ID: 197919-001.
RCPSC ACCREDITATION: The CHES Cutting Edge Speaker Series is a self-approved group learning activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.