Canada, medicine and International medical education

I have been attending a number conferences, retreats and workshops related to medicine and medical education since my return from Nepal.  I have been involved in a lot of dicussion about CANMeds, the objectives of the medical school curriculum at UBC and future of medical education in Canada.

It reminded me of Nepal and the number of times that Canada, CANMeds and the Canadian medical education system were referred to while I was there.  It seems that Canada and its medical education system is world class.

It was such an interesting experience to hear about how Canada is referred to in such a good light while I was on the other side of the world.  One particular incident stands out to me.  My friend and colleague, Dr. Joan Mitchell and I were sitting in a large lecture theatre at Patan Hospital listening to Dr. Kichu Nair from Australia (Newcastle) was speaking about medical education, PBL and other things related to teaching in medical schools around the world.  He knew Joan and I, knew we were from Canada, and we were the ONLY ones in the room from Canada.  He kept referring to Canada, referring to us and this made us feel pretty important!  :)  What it really did was make us feel proud to be Canadian, proud to teach in the medical education system and proud to be part of a world class medical school in Canada.

Chile
New Zealand
Spain
Uganda
Mauritius !!!!

2 new Nepal and PAHS blogs to follow!

http://healthtreknepal.blogspot.com/

http://teachingcardioinkathmandu.blogspot.com/

The story of the Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS) and medical education in Nepal continues!

The Journal of International Experiences

Click this link to go to the very first edition of this journal.  Both Carol Ann and I have articles about our Nepal volunteer experiences in it.

Stories about International Volunteer Experiences

Hope you enjoy it!

I can't believe how many countries are following!

Ireland
Phillipines
Denmark
United Arab Emirates
Hong Kong
Italy
Romania
Russia

Contrasting PBL Tutor Training at PAHS (Nepal) and at the IMP (Canada)

Joan and I delivered a PBL Tutor Training Workshop to faculty in Nepal.  Physicians at Patan Hospital were interested in becoming teaching faculty at PAHS and so we trained 14 of them in PBL.  In an earlier post I discussed this experience a bit...
The residents that we were using as "mock" students did not return the 2nd day, only 4 showed up in the first place when there were supposed to be 8 of them, it was a 16 hour workshop over 2 days while ours is only an 8 hour workshop spread over 2 days etc.

I thought that I would take the time to talk about the differences that we saw.  On Tuesday, April 26 and Thursday, April 28, Joan and I came home to Victoria and delivered a PBL Tutor Training Workshop to faculty here at the IMP in Canada.  It was so great to have these 2 events so close together so that the differences would be obvious.

These are the main things that struck me:

• Everyone showed up on time in Victoria - early in fact!
• There were no cell phones ringing, no answering of cell phones and no one left the room for an extended period to talk on their phone.
• The technology worked and I was not concerned about it.  I also fully expected, and was not disappointed, that there would be power for the length of the workshop!
• Each day was only 4 hours long vs. 8 hours long in Nepal.
• The "mock" students showed up for training, were enthusiastic and talked!
• These same students also showed up the next workshop day!  :)
• We had MUCH more food at our workshop - although it was eaten by staff in the office, it is always excessive. 
• We didn't take photos of the particpants with the Vice-Chancellor and other important faculty members here in Victoria.
• In Nepal, there is a real sense of mourning (from Tuckman's stages of group development) when the group had to disband.  This really interests me thinking about cultural differences.  Is there some reason why the bonds that are formed in groups are stronger in some cultures?
• We had a fun and formal certificate ceremony in Nepal, where the Vice Chancellor handed out certificates to all, including Joan and I, and photos were taken the whole time.

Both workshops were fun and everyone seemed to learn a lot. 

How did I miss this..?

To be fair, I wasn't yet addicted to it.

Nutella Day!