STUDENTS & RESIDENTS
that there is good evidence for, is recruitment and retention.
The three things that drive where you are going to practice
is where you are from, where you did some or all of your
training, and what your partner wants. So, to increase the
number of people who go to a diverse range of locations to
practice, we need to have a diverse number of locations to
train. Having both family doctors and specialists take some
or all of their training outside the main centre, is imperative.”
An additional benefit of the distributed medical education
model is that it gets students and residents closer to the
front-line, seeing patients before they are diagnosed by a
practicing physician. As Smith explains, “To be comfortable
with the kind of open-ended thinking that comes from
seeing a patient that has no diagnosis and no label, is an
entirely different learning experience than the learning experience in a sub-specialized setting where every patient,
although they have serious, complex, unique problems, you
don’t have to think of them from first principles, as the diagnosis has already been made.” Smith feels this front-line
experience is not only critical in teaching students how to
diagnose patients, but it also encourages students to give
greater consideration to generalist specialties.
While the distributed medical education model is being
implemented, the physician resource plan and the Provincial Academic Clinical Funding Plan are also being completed. For the distributed education model to work properly,
Smith believes all of these plans must be coordinated to
ensure the needs of students, residents and practicing physicians are covered.
“I think that hopefully the consultants
have learned from
their experience in
Nova Scotia and that
they adequately account in the physician resource plan
for the academic
role of physicians.
You can’t either
have a tertiary centre or distributed
medical education
in smaller centres
unless you account
in your HR plan for
the amount of time
people spend doing
For more
informa-
44
SMA NEWS DIGEST | SUMMER 2014
teaching and research. That’s where the physician resource
plan and the development of the (Provincial Academic Clinical Funding Plan) are really closely tied together.”
Carrying through with The Way Forward, which will help to
solve the accreditation issues and improve research funding
success for the College of Medicine, is the immediate objective for Smith. He hopes to bring others on board with the
changes by being an inclusive and accessible dean and by
uniting all faculty members, whether they work in a mainly
clinical or academic setting.
“The (Provincial Academic Clinical Funding Plan) is the next
critical step to move The Way Forward,” he said. “That is one
critical step to creating one faculty. We are going to a model
which recognizes all faculty members on the same basis
and we are trying to move away from a ‘town/gown’ divide.
We are trying to recognize that all Saskatchewan doctors
are absolutely essential to the College of Medicine and they
are all equal, in my eyes. “
Follow Smith on Twitter
@USaskMedDean