Shifting Landscapes: Family Medicine in 2020
By: Yasmine Elmir
Each year, the Department of Family Medicine hosts a retreat, offering a unique opportunity for Department members to get together to share and exchange various activities, ideas and innovations. This year’s event was held on October 29 and 30, taking place virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The online format allowed more flexibility for members of the Department living outside of Montreal to attend the event, which attracted more than 120 attendees each day. This year’s theme, “Shifting Landscapes: Family Medicine in 2020,” was comprised of four workshops that were presented in the course of two half-days: Decolonizing Practice/ Practicing Decolonization: Improving Indigenous Inclusion in McGill's Family Medicine Department; The Research Pitch; Game Changers: Department Innovators and Innovations; and The Art of Communication in the Virtual World of a Pandemic. Throughout the retreat, there were also opportunities to showcase the artistic side of members of the Department including a few participants reading their written entries for the COVID Stories Contest, and a presentation of videos produced by our graduate students.
On the first day of the retreat, Dr. Marion Dove, Department Chair and Dr. David Eidelman, Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, kicked-off the event with their opening remarks. “I have been very much heartened by the way our community has responded to the pandemic, in this shift in our way of working. I have the privilege of being a patient of this Department [Family Medicine] and I have seen first-hand that people have adapted very well to extraordinarily challenging phenomena, in terms of patient care and in terms of teaching and research,” shared Dr. Eidelman.
Prof. Richard Budgell and Prof. Alex McComber presented the first workshop, “Decolonizing Practice/ Practicing Decolonization: Improving Indigenous Inclusion in McGill's Family Medicine Department.” Throughout their presentations, both reminded participants of the importance of an inclusive practice of Family Medicine and the unconscious judgments that can be made on Indigenous patients. After the presentations, participants were divided into breakout rooms to discuss and report on two questions. They had the chance to converse about their personal role in improving Indigenous inclusion and cultural safety (in Family Medicine and in medical practice) and how the Department of Family Medicine can contribute to the growing concerns of providing the best clinical care with Indigenous patients and researching with Indigenous Peoples and communities. The workshop made attendees think critically about Indigenous issues and created an important discussion in the Department.
The second workshop on the first day was “The Research Pitch.” The format used for this workshop was new to researchers, with their being given two minutes to present one of their research projects. This short time frame gave participants the opportunity to learn about a variety of projects across the Department. Presenters were Dr. Mark Yaffe, Dr. Roland Grad, Christian Ruchon, Dr. Alayne Adams, Dr. Bertrand Lebouché, Dr. Pierre Pluye, Dr. Anne Cockcroft, Dr. Tracie Barnett, Dr. Peter Nugus and Dr. Amalia Issa. The learning objectives of these presentations were to identify various research projects in the Department of Family Medicine, to recognize the novel contribution of these projects to the discipline of Family Medicine and to describe the impact of research findings on clinical care.
On October 30, after an opening speech from Dr. Dove, Dr. Armand Aalamian, Associate Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education and Dr. Mélanie Mondou, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Medical Education, the second part of the retreat began with the “Game Changers: Department Innovators and Innovations” workshop. Dr. Guylene Theriault, Dr. Francois Venne, Dr. Neb Kovacina, and Dr. Dominique Archambault took turns presenting their innovative work to the Department. The presenters touched on issues such as Indigenous health in Val d’Or, the hidden curriculum in Family Medicine, the COVID-19 pandemic and Distributed Medical Education. The learning objectives of these presentations were to be able to summarize clinical innovations in the Department of Family Medicine, to analyse the impact of clinical innovations on patient care and reflect on the implementation of new clinical innovations across family medicine sites and to consider how these innovations could be applied in other clinical settings.
The retreat concluded with “The Art of Communication in the Virtual World of a Pandemic” workshop, exploring what is needed to provide good communication, regardless of the area of work. Presenters were Diana Colby, Director of Communications at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dr. Emma Glaser and Julie Kristof. By the end of the workshop, participants had learned to explain the specific communication challenges they face with the rapid transition to a virtual clinical environment and online teaching, to describe three skills that are important for effective online communication in teaching, research, or patient care and to identify two changes they could make to improve their online communication skills.
This year’s retreat was a delight for many as it provided an opportunity to connect during a difficult time. Attendees participated extensively in the chat by asking questions and giving positive remarks. They even had the time to dance during a Zumba break, which created a fun atmosphere. The online format seemed like a disadvantage at first, but the positive outcome proved otherwise. The Department of Family Medicine is massive and includes people from all around Quebec – the retreat was a representation of the amazing work Department members do every day.