Faculty development research day a success

Faculty Development held its second annual medical education research and scholarship day on June 8 in Saskatoon. The event gave faculty, students and residents the opportunity to showcase research projects and results. This year’s event included health science colleagues from the College of Medicine (including Biomedical Sciences and the School of Rehabilitation Science), the College of Pharmacy, and the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.

The day was a success, with over 60 participants and more than 20 posters.

“We are thrilled with the day,” said Dr. Cathy MacLean, faculty development director. “The feedback has been extremely positive overall. We received a great response to the two plenaries, the opportunities for networking as well as the oral presentations.”

Dr. Ian Scott, Associate Professor in the Department of Family Practice and Director of the Centre for Health Education Scholarship at the University of British Columbia, kicked off the morning with a plenary talk on ‘Effective teaching, learning and scholarship.’ He discussed enhanced methods of learning that best resonate with medical students to help them retain and recall material.

The afternoon plenary lecture was given by Dr. Alice Fornari on ‘Inspiring professional and personal growth: meaningful communities of practice through research and scholarship in medical education.’ Dr. Fornari is Associate Dean of Educational Skills Development, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in New York and is the Assistant Vice President of Faculty Development for the 23 hospitals of the Northwell Health organization.

In addition to the poster presentations and lectures, there were oral presentations on a variety of themes including competency-based medical education, curriculum, social accountability and technology. The facilitated networking groups were on library supports for medical education research, competency-based medical education and opportunities for research, and a general group on medical education grants and journals and how to advance faculty involvement in medical education research and scholarship.

The event wrapped up with the prize for best poster, which was awarded to Dr. Jon Dean for his research ‘Integration of feedback into clinical practice by resident doctors.’