Relating to Patients: Connection, Awareness, Relationship, Engagement

What are Virginia Satir’s survival stances and how do they relate to the practice of medicine? This and other topics such as the role of mindfulness and empathy in clinical care are explored in an experiential workshop being pioneered by the Department of Medicine for all clinical members of the Department. The workshop has been conducted 19 times since December 2015 with participation of over 250 experienced clinicians including the chiefs of Gastroenterology, Nephrology, Neurology, Infectious Disease, Geriatrics, General Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, Physical Medicine, Allergy and Immunology and Hematology. Evaluations of the session are shown below. The workshop is a part of a commitment on the part of the Department of Medicine to begin the transformation of clinical practice in the direction of relationship centered and whole person care.

This activity is an Accredited Self-Assessment Program (Section 3) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and approved by the Office of Continuing Professional Development, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University. You may claim a maximum of 3.75 hours (credits are automatically calculated).

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 the Office of Continuing Professional Development, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences for up to 3.75 Mainpro+ credits.

Overall Experience

• Thought provoking. Forced – compelled – me to look at patient-caregiver relationship from new fresh perspectives.
• Excellent.
• Overall this was a very valuable and reflective workshop that really highlighted the importance of the patient relationship.
• Very worthwhile. Left wanting /looking forward to seeing where this leads…
• Positive. I learnt items that I can apply and teach.
• Good opportunity to be aware of impairments and to see others finding ways around it. Are students being taught this?
• Not quite sure what I learned, perhaps to focus on my role in medical care as a person.
• Very good idea. This workshop should be part of the medical curriculum.
• Still a bit nebulous as to next steps + integrative.
• Excellent session on a topic often ignored but essential to our practice.
• Enjoyed the experience. Would have given much more time to the different stances.
• Excellent experience, positive as our care.
• Very good group size; would encourage keeping gender balance/representativity.
• Very useful, will stimulate my thinking / practice.
• Very useful for me as a doctor. Very valuable for me as a person.
• Worthwhile, beyond my expectation.
• Very favourable. Allowed for introspection in my own practice.
• Good.
• Enjoyed it/learnt from it.
• When I came I didn’t feel I needed this but I realised it was useful.
• Good use of 4 hours. Given my present commitments I prefer ½ day format to full day.
• I suspect I will be more focused/aware/engaged. Need to have more similar workshops to help us think of these aspects of Medicine.
• Enlightening - will need time to assimilate and apply.
• Provided an opportunity to reflect on oneself.
• Very noisy ventilation, difficult to hear facilitator at times without the mic, good use of AV.
• Mentorship of Tom Hutchinson was at the cutting-edge. Fantastic seminar with optimal interactions.
• Very strong session engaging & stimulating. However, the moonshot video at the end seemed out of place.
• Very rewarding. Enlightening.