With exams behind us and the transition into summer well under way, here is our update to the class issues raised last month in our survery.
A huge thanks to Faazil and Dave for their contributions to the Clerkship and H/P/F System questions!
Clerkship (written by Faazil Kassam, Clerkship Representative):
-The PDA sale will take place around Feb of 2009. I spoke to the second year Clerkship Rep and she said they did not have a lot of people participate in it for their year. PDA’s are not required anymore to log completed procedures and/or patient interactions. This is done though “e-log” on computer terminals or through access of a wireless internet connection via a handheld device. For those who are still interested in the purchase of a handheld device, the sale will likely still take place early in 2009 and all the details will be
given next year. I will keep the class updated on any new information.
- The subjective grading of clerkship has been one of the prominent reasons discussed for the switching of H/P/F to P/F. This HPF topic will be discussed further at the next clerkship meeting at the end of June and I’ll keep you updated if there is any new information. The subjective component of clerkship is primarily in the ward evaluations completed by your preceptors. One important point is that your mark in a course is not entirely based on ward evaluations, but also on Objective Standardized Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) as well as possibly some written examinations depending on the course. I believe the relative percentages of how much each is worth is course/rotation dependent.
- The organization of rotations can be seen on the faculty website (http://www.facmed.utoronto.ca/) under clerkship. We will be doing the academy/rotation combined match (i.e. 3 academies 6 rotations = ranking of 18 choices) well before the end of next year and so we will know our academies ahead of time, which will help in decisions of living arrangements, and transportation arrangements. One other point is that there will be a formal clerkship information night around January year with all the course directors present and an information booklet and much information on rotations will be addressed. I will try to get a few copies of the clerkship information package of last year for September and those who are interested early on can let me know and borrow the package.
- A mock clerkship day is a great idea, and I will definitely ask if this can be a possibility. Just off the top of my head, I’m not sure if we can be given the responsibilities of a clerk because I’m not sure if there are insurance policies that need to be considered, but shadowing or observing the clerk I think may be a feasible idea. I do think that this would probably have to be academy-based and organized through ASCM (like Day of the Doctor) so I will try and get in touch with the ASCM rep to see if we can still try and organize such an event for later in the year. However, it may be late in terms of ASCM scheduling, which has likely already taken place.
- The lack of LMCC study time has been raised in a previous meeting, and the faculty do understand the students’ concern. Unfortunately, it is difficult to implement any sort of “back to basics” program until the process of curriculum renewal is completed, which will take some time and so it is unlikely that we will get any significant change to our clerkship schedule. I will keep the class informed if anything changes with this issue.
H/P/F System (written by Dave Homuth, Appeals Committee Representative):
-[Regarding the H/P/F -> P/F appeal:] The situation is quite fluid right now with a certain ambiguity as to what will happen next for the next week or so. There is a chance even that a preclerkship change could effect us next year (with us both having the opportunity to vote on whether we would like pass/fail for all 4 years and a separate question specifically for our class asking if we are OK with a split preclerkship transcript). The credit/no credit proposal has passed the preclerkship committee and will be considered as well at the clerkship committee. There will be a referendum on this issue within the first few weeks of class following an information campaign, town hall and debate.
-Sam & Nigel here: Regarding the question how we will be approaching the H/P/F System appeal – we have both spoken to Dave and agreed that he remains in the best position to lobby for change, and is committed to continue the work done as Class Co-President last year in his new position as Appeals Committee Rep. We will certainly lend our support when required, and will be working with Dave to ensure that the class is kept informed every step of the way.
CaRMS System:
-Talks from the residency directors with regards to CaRMS matching and general information about applying to each graduate program are certainly coming along the pipeline for us in 2008/09. We will be keeping you well informed of the dates of these events to ensure a high class turnout. To tailor the talks to our concerns as a class, it’s VERY important that any questions that you would like addressed about CaRMS or specific programs are forwarded to us and/or your Preclerkship/Clerkship representatives! We are confident that the faculty would be more than willing to address them.
-Clerkship elective timing has been a major concern for several years. For anyone not aware, this refers to the fact that some of our electives are scheduled after the CaRMS application deadline in 4th year. Electives are the portions of clerkship during which students select particular programs/sites that interest them, and may impact their future matching to those programs/sites during CaRMS. Consequently, some students feel that they would be stronger candidates at certain programs/sites if the electives were all scheduled “pre-CaRMS”. Since this issue has been raised perennially, we will certainly keep you posted with any information as it becomes relevant to 1T1 and future years. But right now, you should be in Hawaii sipping a pina colada…
Class/Lecture Issues:
-The issue of disruptive and/or discourteous behaviour toward fellow students and lecturers was raised by several of our classmates, and is particularly significant given how much time we spend attending lectures and interacting in MSB. We realize that there are times when people are asking their neighbour to clarify an issue brought up during lectures and circumstances preventing students from arriving on time to lecture. We hope that all of 1T1 can simply acknowledge that the problems of disruptive conversations and arriving late/noisily into class are affecting the learning of fellow students and friends, and we appeal everyone to continue to be considerate and respectful.
-Internet resources were extremely useful to many students during B&B, and we hope that this was reflected in those MedSIS evals that we know everyone filled out…as for FMP and PBD, we will be in touch shortly with their respective course representatives to see where the course faculty stands on taking lectures online.
-Re-orientation: The social reps have been informed…nuff said.
-Breaking the monotony of the day: With the reduced lecture hours, clinically-oriented courses, abundant observership opportunities, club announcements, and Bharat’s (hopefully continuing) break music, we hope that 2nd year will naturally transition into more interesting days on average. However, we completely welcome any suggestions on specific ways to keep the energy high all through the day!
MSB Issues:
-All of the issues raised about MSB (MAA lounge modifications, Discovery Commons hours of operation, Toronto Star) have been noted, and we’ll definitely be bringing them up to the appropriate people closer to September and during 2nd year. Keep the ears/eyes peeled!
Observership Opportunities:
-Our goal is to compile a list of formal observership opportunities from the different Academies, working with the Academy Reps throughout the year. By no means does this mean that a student is restricted to observerships at his/her academy, or clinicians on our list, but we think that this will be a convenient way of organizing some sort of document that can be disseminated to everyone. Furthermore, during the year it would be great if students who have done observerships can provide relevant contact information to add to this list.
Other:
-First Aid classes for 1T1s/1T2s: If you would like to register for a first aid course, please send us an email by August 1st. If there is a sufficient response, we will coordinate the class for the entire group.
-Locker safety: We believe that thanks to lobbying of the 1T1/1T0 class presidents in 2007/8, new lockers with enhanced security are supposed to be built in the near future. How near in the future and how enhanced the security are questions that we will aim to confirm at our first Dean’s meeting.
-Opening up study space: An important issue that we will tackle with the Academy Reps and Academy Directors. Stay tuned.
-USMLE & US training information: This will be addressed in a future update.
That’s all for now, 1T1! Please check back frequently over the summer… our next post contains information regarding medical student access to family doctors in Toronto.
In case you forgot, we’re always around at meds1T1@gmail.com.
Take care and stay safe!
S&N
