The McGill University Faculty of Medicine officially welcomed its new cohort of residents during an orientation session and lunch held on campus in late July. “The goal of the orientation is to welcome the residents to McGill and to facilitate their integration into a community,” says Dr. Armand Aalamian, Associate Dean, Postgraduate Medical Education in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill. “Hopefully this is going to be their community while they are residents but also when they move on into practice. This is their professional family. They are becoming part of this McGill community.”
This objective was met according to Dr. Greta Evaristo, beginning her residency in pathology after finishing medical school at Université de Montréal, who found that the day provided a good opportunity to meet other first-year residents.
Like Dr. Evaristo, the first few weeks of residency have been going well for Dr. Anita Raj as well, who is completing her residency in family medicine at the Herzl Family Practice Centre at the Jewish General Hospital. “I chose family medicine because I felt like I was interested in every single rotation I did (as a medical student) and I didn’t want to stick to just one thing,” says Dr. Raj on why she chose family medicine. “I didn’t want to just see patients in the hospital. I liked seeing patients in the hospital and out in different environments and that’s what interested me about family medicine. You also get to see kids and elderly patients and get to deal with a variety of problems – you never know what walks in the door.”
Dr. Raj’s classmate from McGill, Dr. Saman Ahmad chose internal medicine because of the complexity and her interest in adult medicine and in being in the hospital. Dr. Ahmad was eager to continue her training at McGill after completing her undergraduate medical education at the University. “As students and as residents we are given a lot of responsibility at McGill and I feel like you learn a lot more from experience,” she explain. “We have great teachers at McGill, great exposure to amazing patients. It’s a really good learning opportunity. What I like also is that we have a really good integrated program not only in terms of medicine but for professionalism as well that allows you to learn how to conduct yourself as a doctor in general.”
When it comes to what he hopes residents will remember throughout their training, Dr. Aalamian has an important message. “I call these the four “Cs” that I want them to be carrying forward into their residency,” he explains. “The four “Cs” are curiosity, commitment, competence and care. I think the key message is to care as long as they are in medical training and also as they go on to their future years in practice.”
August 3, 2017