Celebrating Our Residents
This past week marked Resident Awareness Week. The annual event organized by Resident Doctors of Canada (RDoC) is an opportunity to highlight the important work done by more than 10,000 resident physicians across Canada. Residency is not only a formative period of professional development, but residents are also an important segment of the physician workforce. For every five active physicians in Canada, there is one resident.
Resident training is at the vanguard of medical education with the implementation of Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME). As Professors Glen Bandiera and Suzan Schneeweiss explained in July, U of T has been well ahead of the country in making the shift to CBME, which offers an enriched learning experience for our residents: “This is a significant step forward in the continued evolution of medical education. Replacing the time-based ‘apprenticeship model,’ CBME offers more frequent observations, assessments and feedback for residents to gradually demonstrate the acquisition of skills.” As reported in the 2018 Post MD Annual Report, we’ve seen CBME launched in full or in part in five specialties — including Anesthesia and Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery — as well as Surgical Foundations for 10 surgical specialties.
Residency has long been known as a particularly stressful and challenging phase of training. In recent years, a number of factors have conspired to amplify this. Ensuring resident wellness and safety is a priority for the Faculty and has been an important focus for our strategic planning efforts. In a survey by the Canadian Medical Association this fall, significantly more residents reported burnout, depression and lifetime suicidal ideation than physicians in general. Supporting resident physicians through resiliency training, both before residency begins and during their training is essential. So too is a robust array of wellness resources and carefully managing fatigue. It’s also important to remember the qualities that underpin being a resident, such as humility, generosity, reflectiveness and adaptability.
Behind the facts and figures are the individuals who comprise the resident physicians at the University of Toronto, including Dr. Andreea Gheorghe, a PGY-3 in Psychiatry, Dr. Simone Lebeuf, a Pediatrician and second-year Subspecialty Resident (PGY-5) in Adolescent Medicine, and Dr. Carl White Ulysse, PGY-3 in Anesthesiology. They, like so many of their colleagues, embody the commitment, skill, and promise in our resident physician community. So, let us take this opportunity to recognize our residents and celebrate their contributions to U of T’s vibrant learning environment and our health system.
Trevor Young
Dean, Faculty of Medicine
Vice Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions
