QBOL Grand Opening / 1 Year in Partnership with Lakeridge Health

As we prepare to welcome the 8 new PGY-1 residents to QBOL in July and have our original 8 transition into the second year of residency, the Department of Family Medicine, Queen's University and Lakeridge Health celebrated their 1st year in partnership on May 29, 2013 in the LHEARN Centre at Lakeridge Health Oshawa. 

The partnership has been a huge success with bringing family doctors to Oshawa and Bowmanville to train and get hand-on experience as well as exposure to state-of-the-art simulation equipment in the LHEARN Centre.

Remarks: Dr. Glenn Brown - Head, Department of Family Medicine, Queen's University

Remarks: Dr. Richard Reznick - Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen's University

Remarks: Dr. Wei-Hsi Pang - Site Director, Queen's Bowmanville Oshawa Lakeridge

Remarks: Dr. Kate Newton - Former Chief Resident, QBOL

Remarks: Recognition of Dr. Gene Dagnone, Queen's University

 

(L-R) (Site Director): Dr. Wei-Hsi Pang, (Residents):Dr. Kate Newton, Dr. Vicki Mount, Dr. Chemanthi Kalen, Dr. Corey Boimer, Dr. Kevin Lam (Absent: Dr. Trish Rys, Dr. Joel Pariag, Dr. Stephanie Marshall)

NNT

Hi.  Spring is finally in the air so that I guess that means we're coming out of hibernation on the blog.  Remind me to stop taking heed of the groundhog forecasts next year.

It is hard to believe that the end of our inaugural year is approaching - it has been quite a blur. 

At QBOL, under the tutelage of Dr. Ward, we have started our monthly Journal Club so the concept of NNT (Number Needed to Treat) has been coming up.  It's fascinating to see where we have good evidence for tests and interventions and very telling when we don't.

During the discussion surrounding one of the papers at Journal Club, the idea of "Number Needed to Teach" came up (because Journal Club is always serious...).  But wouldn't it be interesting to see how many residents had to be taught / unit time to effect a desired learned outcome and then to see how different teaching interventions impacted this type of NNT?

But seriously, this informal use of NNT is also a reminder to me to welcome our incoming cohort of PGY-1 residents to QBOL.  We were ecstatic to find we had matched fully in the first round this year and are looking forward to getting to know our next wave of residents while we expand and refine our learning experiences at our site.

As a parting shot, I'll leave you with the link to a website called TheNNT which Dr. Ward shared with our resident group.  On this site, you can learn about some of the NNT's for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.  Or, if you are ready to be put in your place, on the site, you can also be quizzed about some of the concepts and specifics around NNT (usual definition).

We would be delighted to discuss teaching tools, online resources, and such so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to comment below or contact us!

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.