Our medical doctor Year 3 students return to clerkship on May 25, a date we arrived at working together with the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

That is coming up very quickly and—just as with our shift to learning remotely and stepping away from undergraduate clinical rotations in March—the efforts to coordinate and support this transition again show the dedication and stellar capabilities of our team. Thank you to all those students, staff, faculty and academic leaders, as well as our partners in the health system, who are working to make this happen!

Before we had a date, we had two working groups, one composed of learners, the other of staff and academic leaders, develop proposals for what this return could look like. Their work was exceptional, and positioned us well for the work that’s now been done by our clerkship committee on a clinical rotation plan that will enable our current Year 3 students to complete years 3 and 4 of their degrees for a June 2021 graduation and July 1, 2021, residency start date.

For our clerks and those working in the health system, as you know, much has been done in Saskatchewan’s health system already to address safety in the delivery of care in light of COVID-19, and our college will also be working with our learners, the health authority and other health system partners to align with safety measures for a safe learning environment and an excellent clinical learning experience. As with all areas of life right now, the return to clerkship is not a “return to normal,” but a return to the new normal since the pandemic became part of our daily reality.

As well, our undergraduate and student affairs offices will be working closely with our clerkship students to support their return and help address individual circumstances.

One of our college’s biggest commitments to our learners and our province is this continuous progression of learners through our undergraduate and postgraduate medical doctor programs every year. Keeping these physicians of the future moving through the ranks of undergraduate students, then residents, and ultimately licensed physicians, ensures we can support patient care and the health system today and tomorrow. It is certainly no less important in a COVID-19 world; I think most would agree that it is more important.

With that in mind, I can’t stress enough the need for our medical faculty around the province to be involved as teachers. We need you to take learners into your practices and clinics. Our students today are your physician colleagues of the future.

Finally, I just want to reiterate how impressed I am by our students, staff, academic leaders and faculty in these extraordinary and difficult times. I am thankful for your diligence and responsiveness, and incredibly proud of the resilience and excellence of our team here at the CoM.

We are increasingly seeing COVID-19 hitting racialized, socio-economically challenged people and communities harder than other population groups. We are witnessing this in reports from the United States, with the heavier impact of the virus in black communities, and in an article in the New York Times yesterday raising concerns about this disparity within Latino populations, and here in our own province among Indigenous and northern communities.

COVID-19 underlines more than ever why we must face and challenge inequities in our college and beyond. At the College of Medicine, Research Equity & Diversity Specialist Erin Prosser-Loose and researcher Catherine Trask have started a study on how COVID-19 is impacting those already facing challenges related to equity and diversity. They have collected early data through a survey of our broader USask community, with plans to expand the scope to include national data in the coming weeks.

Erin is leading the study and recently walked our dean’s executive team through early findings.

The data showcases both positive and negative experiences. On the positive side, people have indicated they’ve felt well-supported with regard to information technology needs, and that mental health supports have been well-communicated. Teams are making excellent efforts among themselves to support one another, including through social connections like virtual coffee breaks.

Race-related issues included that some have found working from home has reduced their exposure to racism. While this was expressed as a positive outcome due to COVID-19 adjustments, it points to change we know is needed in our work environment. Also, racialized people expressed being disadvantaged in COVID-19-related changes impacting employment contracts and research opportunities. Some identified having witnessed racism against Asian people.

A gender-related issue identified by many was that primary caregivers, mostly women, are experiencing greater pressure managing childcare, homeschooling and work productivity.

A variety of work, career and financial impacts were brought forward. Pre-tenure faculty are concerned about research progress. It was expressed that tuition for online learning shouldn’t be as high as for face-to-face learning. International students are uncertain about their degree progress and are facing financial hardships. Rural and low-income students are disadvantaged due to internet access issues.

Generally, it was expressed that EDI and Indigenization are being sidelined because of COVID-19, with more conventional issues getting priority. Given how I opened this blog, this is clearly the opposite of what is needed now (and at all times).

Survey participants indicated that the causes of inequities being experienced were based most on power differentials, followed by race, then gender. Participants suggested solutions, including denouncing racism, acknowledging primary caregivers, placing health and wellness ahead of productivity, and extending promotion timeframes. From my own perspective, in particular we do need to denounce racism and continue work towards eliminating it; we must think about how we support and acknowledge primary caregivers, most often women; and our leadership team needs to further explore as a college how we can address issues highlighted by this survey.

Again, I do want to reiterate that information I’m sharing is preliminary. The survey is ongoing and different issues are likely to come up as the situation with the pandemic continues to change.

For our staff, students and faculty (and anyone at USask), if you haven’t already, please take the survey.

Some other information related to this blog topic:

• Data gaps on COVID-19 cases in Indigenous communities
• How to address equity as part of COVID-19 incident command

As the changes we are all experiencing with COVID-19 have now stretched into weeks, stress and anxiety are becoming an increasing challenge for some. Coping with staying at home, managing work and family together in that setting, and the many other restrictions associated with physical distancing are the reality for many. For others on our CoM team, going to work in our hospitals and medical clinics comes with a different set of challenges and causes for stress and anxiety.

This week, the university announced its workforce strategy due to COVID-19 and our college has begun working with supervisors and administrative employees on next steps. This is a stressful time and I remind you that university-supported services including the Employee and Family Assistance Program are available to all employees.

In light of all this, mental health is top of mind right now for many. I want to share some thoughts and resources (see end of this blog) that I hope you find helpful. Of course, I encourage you to focus on the things most useful to you in staying well and welcome you sharing those here, if you would like. Monitoring your moods, thoughts and feelings is especially important, and help is available should you need it through university and college resources, and through our health system.

In many basic day-to-day ways, our mental health is supported by work teams and colleagues maintaining contact and supporting one another virtually. Making time during video meetings for some lighter conversation and humour is helping with social connections and friendships. It certainly helps to see one another, laugh together, and share anecdotes from our lives. As one example, our dean’s office team shares information, humour, pet pictures, grandchildren pictures (I may have posted a few!), and messages of encouragement and support in our MS Teams group every day. This has been a valuable means of keeping us together as a team, along with virtual monthly meetings.

Some teams are having quick daily remote huddles, and colleagues and friends are including online coffee breaks in their schedules to ensure opportunities for the social connections we all value in the workplace. We are reminding one another to get outside for breaks, fresh air and sunshine; the weather has finally co-operated these last few weeks! Making time for exercise and relaxation is a big help in staying upbeat, and mentally and physically well.

Beyond that, at the individual level, more than ever before, our rule of thumb needs to be when we think of someone we know, we call or better yet, video call, to say hi and see how that person is doing. We can all play a role in reaching out to anyone we notice seems down or not themselves. Some of our team members are more isolated than others, and we need to keep this in mind and reach out and include one another in virtual group activities, meetings and through direct connections.

I hope everyone is benefiting from and extending support to colleagues, family and friends. I also share a variety of college, university and other resources here:

• USask student wellness resources
• USask faculty and staff COVID-19 wellness resources
• CoM Office of Student Affairs (undergraduate medical learners)
• CoM PGME Resident Wellness
• CoM Faculty Development COVID-19 mental health resources
• Physician wellness resources through CoM Continuing Medical Education COVID-19 website
• Indigenous Wellness – Morning Star Lodge website
• Government of Saskatchewan Mental health and COVID-19 page
• Strategies for Anxiety During COVID-19 with Dr. Helen Lowry, Department of Psychiatry
• Tips for helping others who are struggling
• Online course for managing mental health during COVID-19

As always, I welcome your feedback, including ways you are finding to stay well.

I have a few messages for this week’s blog.

First, as a Maritimer my thoughts have been with those in Nova Scotia since news broke Sunday of the tragedy there. We at the CoM and in Saskatchewan have tremendous compassion and understanding for what Nova Scotians and the Maritimes are going through, with the terrible toll of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash still deeply felt here after two years. And we have a number of people on our CoM team who are from the Maritimes, as well. So our thoughts are very much with our fellow healthcare learners and workers and first responders in Nova Scotia.

On behalf of everyone at our college, I extend heartfelt condolences to all who are suffering from this incredibly painful loss.

I want to also provide a brief update on our undergraduate medical education clerkship program and where we are at in planning for “reopening” clerkship.

In this vein, as you know, earlier today Premier Scott Moe shared details of a careful, gradual approach to reopening Saskatchewan services and businesses that was developed with Dr. Saqib Shahab, chief medical health officer. Important context from this plan for us all: even as some businesses and services begin to reopen, requirements for physical distancing, personal hygiene and cleanliness, and appropriate use of protective equipment remain in place for at least many more weeks. I encourage you to visit the plan website and read the plan document.

The province’s plan will certainly inform all of our own planning, including for clerkship. In that regard, a significant amount of work has already taken place. Earlier today we had a meeting where proposals developed by two working groups—one composed of our clerkship students, the other of the educators and directors leading clerkship curriculum—were shared with our medical education leaders and will be used to develop a plan for how and when undergraduate clinical education resumes.

Of course, the pandemic is expected to be with us for the foreseeable future and any plans we make must be flexible, as changes with changing circumstances must be expected. More information on our clerkship plan will be shared as it unfolds.

The good news is, as our premier said, we have reason to be cautiously optimistic about the spread of COVID-19 in our province. Continued diligence and thoughtful planning will enable us to make some progress on returning to some aspects of our previous approach to clerkship and other areas of learning and working. It’s important for us to recognize that what we are planning for is a new normal and we need to adjust our expectations with that in mind. This is true for our plans for clerkship, and all our plans for our work of the future.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.

Many adjustments have been made to where and how we are working in the past month. With this blog, I draw attention to the difficult circumstances of our researchers—our faculty researchers, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

For this group, our campus and other facilities are critical to the progress of their work. So, similar to learners who can’t be physically present in clinical settings, most or all work for our researchers is stopped at this time. Their projects, some of which may have been on the cusp of a significant breakthrough, are halted. For our graduate students, as I mentioned in my earlier blog on learners, this stop to projects comes also with delays in graduation for some and managing difficult financial realities for many.

Processes are underway for determining facility access for projects related to COVID-19, and of course some access has been ongoing for some COVID-19 work at VIDO-Intervac and with testing in some of our laboratory facilities, and for projects involving care of animals. But for the majority of our researchers, projects are halted and they won’t gain access to facilities until that time when we begin our return to campuses and other facilities.

We have  a number of our researchers involved in the critically important COVID-19 efforts at USask, like Scott Napper, professor of biochemistry and senior scientist at VIDO-Intervac. Maureen Anderson, assistant professor in community health and epidemiology, worked with the dynamic modelling team providing evidence to inform Saskatchewan’s pandemic decision-making in real-time, a collaboration with USask’s Department of Computer Science. Gary Groot, associate professor in community health and epidemiology and surgery, is working with Jim Barton, associate dean of continuing medical education, and a team that’s been gathering and vetting information on the science of the COVID-19 virus to inform provincial leaders in their planning and decision-making. I know you join me in thanking these members of our team for their work.

These efforts focused now on COVID-19 are a reminder that under normal circumstances, on a daily basis, our researchers are engaged in knowledge creation and discoveries that the world needs—important work that our researchers are passionate about, and to which they are passionately committed.

I am not suggesting that the physical distancing measures and changes in access to our facilities are not the right things to do—we know they are and that the safety of our people is paramount and comes before other considerations. But I do want to bring attention to the significance of this change for our researchers, this loss of momentum, this stop to incredibly important work.

As you can appreciate, it is particularly ironic to have, at the very same time, public recognition broadening for just how important science, knowledge creation and discovery are to our collective safety and wellbeing. That said, we know this public awareness is a good thing ultimately for science, and certainly has brought the incredibly valuable work of our population health experts and biomedical scientists to the forefront.

Similar to many, my own awareness and understanding of population health, immunology and the nature of viruses is expanding. I’ve become quite immersed, while working out, in This Week in Virology podcasts. Perhaps it’s my inner nerd speaking; I find them fascinating. I expect many of you are accessing new sources of information related to the pandemic; I welcome you to share here information you are turning to and finding helpful.

So with this message, I ask you to join me in acknowledging and recognizing our researchers at the CoM for their valuable contributions—those engaged directly in work now on the virus, but equally those who are removed for the time being from their work on underlying causes, treatments and cures for so many areas of health: cancer, heart disease and stroke, HIV-AIDS, multiple sclerosis, mental illness, cystic fibrosis, and so many more.

I wanted to share some current thoughts for how our college is operating today in light of the pandemic, and what we expect in the coming days and weeks.

Increasingly we are seeing the need to continue with our critical actions of physical distancing, practicing proper hygiene, staying at home as much as possible, and self-isolation when required. The Government of Saskatchewan’s release of COVID-19 modelling for Saskatchewan yesterday as the basis for health system planning (it is not a prediction), underlines this need to continue with current measures.

In short, we are in a holding pattern for now. I am sure you will appreciate that we cannot plan with great certainty, especially farther out. We do know that for the moment and likely until at least July, we are continuing with learning, teaching and working remotely.

Our physicians too are delivering more care virtually, but of course our residents, medical faculty and some of our staff are attending our hospitals and other healthcare facilities, looking after patients, while learning and adjusting to new realities, approaches and safety measures. To this group: you are our colleagues and our learners, and we are keenly aware of the challenges and difficulties you are facing. Alongside everyone in Saskatchewan, we are thinking of and thanking you each and every day.

We are committed to supporting your efforts on the frontline by doing our part to stay home, practice appropriate hygiene, and do all in our power to stay well.

For all who are learning and working remotely, our new methods of staying connected will continue for the near future. With our learners, we will continue to update you with communications from your program offices, as well as with virtual meetings including town halls, small group work, and meetings with student and resident leaders. And we continue with online teaching and learning, and meetings, and various virtual administrative meetings, as our college moves forward in its mandate as much as possible apart from our physical facilities at our campuses and sites around the province.

So I offer words of encouragement to everyone at the CoM. Maintain a strong commitment to the necessary processes and approaches we’ve adopted. Use the virtual tools we have at our disposal to stay connected and stay positive and healthy. Help is available to all—our learners, faculty and staff—if you are struggling personally, through our USask resources and within our college, and via your supervisors. Do not hesitate to reach out if you need support.

Finally, on a separate note, I want to congratulate Dr. Melissa Just, who the university named this week our incoming interim provost and vice-president academic. She joined USask as dean of the University Library in February 2017 and has provided exceptional leadership in that role, and brings a strong background with extensive experience in academic and research libraries, including within a medical school, at a variety of major American universities. I am looking forward to working with Melissa in the days ahead.

As always, I welcome your feedback. Stay well.

With my blog this week I want to reach out in particular to our learners with some words of support.

As well, I want to share how our learners in different programs and years are continuing with their education and training.

So first, some words to our learners: the college, and our leaders and staff in your respective programs appreciate your patience and commitment in adjusting to the many changes in education delivery caused by COVID-19. We know you have many questions and we have received many of those from you; CoM leaders, faculty and staff are working very hard to provide answers where we have them, and support you in various ways. We all need to hang in there, continue to stay connected in safe ways, and help one another out with understanding and patience.

As you know, the primary effort for all of us right now is the one we are each making to protect our health and that of others. That does not mean all else stops, and in as many ways as safe and reasonable, we continue to move ahead. Our college is committed to advancing learners through their programs in a safe manner; this work is more important than ever.

Second, what is happening with our learners now?

Our programs and offices are in contact with students, responding to inquiries and providing updates. Leaders in our School of Rehabilitation Sciences, graduate studies, undergraduate and postgraduate medical education offices, at our Regina campus and other sites, and in all our departments are maintaining connections with their respective learners, answering questions and providing support. As we learn new ways to do so, we are working to maintain and bring normality to how we connect with learners.

Medical education learners – undergraduate

Our approach to the undergraduate medical education program during COVID-19 is based on three principles: learner well-being; completion of education/clerkship and graduation on time; and public health obligations.

Our Year 4 MD students have completed their clinical work and will graduate on June 4, 2020. They will join residency programs as usual, with about half staying in Saskatchewan programs and the rest joining programs in other provinces across the country.

Our Year 3 MD students are in a particularly challenging time, as they have had to step away from clinical learning since March 16. They will return to complete Year 3 when conditions are improved both in terms of safety and availability of a broad range of clinical learning experiences. Right now, we don’t know when that will be, and recognize how difficult this uncertainty is for these students. In the interim, we have begun planning for how this return of Year 3 students to clinical learning can best be managed, the starting point for charting a path toward successful completion of Year 3 and developing a plan for Year 4 for the MD Class of 2021.

Year 1 and 2 MD students are currently participating in lectures and completing assessments remotely, and participating in small group sessions through videoconferencing. Their Clinical Skills courses have been postponed for reasons of safety and availability of learning experiences, and course leaders are working on redesigning these courses for later delivery.

We have begun holding regular virtual town halls with our undergraduate medical students and will continue to do so, and are in close contact with student leaders. Our Office of Student Affairs is available to all undergraduate medical students needing support.

Medical education learners – postgraduate

In postgraduate training, our residents are being supported by their departments and our postgrad office on processes for possible redeployment if necessary to areas of need, and provisional licensing for those in their finishing year. This might mean a shift of timelines with regard to program completion for some, but our residents continue their critical roles in patient care, working and training in clinical settings, with the appropriate precautions and safety measures in place aligned with their levels of training.

Graduate students

Our graduate students also face big changes and challenges, with financial concerns related to part-time work and summer job availability, while continuing their studies. The vast majority are unable to access university buildings and facilities to continue research projects. Know that our college is actively engaged in this issue and working with USask on solutions. This week, I joined CoM Vice-Dean Research Marek Radomski and Assistant Dean Graduate Studies David Cooper at a meeting with our CoM Graduate Student Association. We continue to advocate for our graduate students and are staying in close contact with the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Master of Physical Therapy (MPT) students

The School of Rehabilitation Science (SRS) is supporting its students and working to minimize any negative impact on their academic progress. Our faculty there are teaching remotely and students are participating in online classes and examinations focused on the theoretical components of learning objectives. Laboratory content and evaluation have been deferred until students can return for face-to-face delivery. Clinical placements have been cancelled and the school is working diligently to manage the impact. Our MPT research projects have been modified so students can continue their research remotely. SRS faculty and staff maintain close communication with students, and are offering additional material via webinars and promoting wellness activities during this time of physical isolation.

Finally, and once again, I thank our learners, faculty and staff for your efforts of these recent weeks to stay committed and connected.

My first message to you with this blog is that I hope you are finding ways to stay well in body, mind and spirit through these uncertain times. For our learners, staff and faculty, know that our college is here to support you as you adjust to learning and working in different ways.

I want to share a few articles I’ve read in the past few days that I found helpful. I think they are valuable reminders of our shared purpose regarding COVID-19, as well as the amazing resilience and strength of the human spirit. Perhaps these resources will provide you with some additional knowledge, strengthened resolve, and some peace from knowing what you can and are contributing to this extraordinary global effort to fight the spread of COVID-19.

I’m impressed by those individuals advocating loudly for the public health measures that are absolutely needed to get us through this. This week I was pleased to see a group of medical leaders come forward with all of the right points about public health measures through this opinion piece in the New York Times. An emergency doctor in Ontario appealed to people who still believe their lives should go on as usual through this CBC story. And of course, the many stories of people safely singing from their balconies to cheer on and thank our healthcare workers, and provide cheer to one another.

All kinds of information is coming out around efforts at predicting and planning for how we will be impacted in Saskatchewan by the pandemic. Minister of Health Jim Reiter made what I consider a very correct statement when he said he wanted to have the worst-case scenario.

As the saying goes, “Hope for the best, plan for the worst,” (from author Lee Child). So absolutely we must be planning for the worst-case scenario to do our best to manage this evolving pandemic. Saskatchewan has brilliant population health experts and scientists working on solutions and excellent physicians leading teams in providing the best care possible. Planning and preparing are critical and our province is doing that.

Now to the other part of that quote, I turn your thoughts to hope, and another article about two Italian physicians I read in the Globe and Mail recently. They are in the thick of the world’s most intense COVID-19 battles. While the article outlines dire circumstances and realities, it also reminds us of the strength and resilience of the human spirit I referenced earlier. Hope is the fuel that will keep us going so we can each continue to do our part in this crisis.

What I am seeing around me gives me hope. Amazing efforts in planning, care and research. And I see every day how our team at the CoM and others are connecting virtually to support one another through these times. I see you reaching out with empathy, humour, offers of support. We need to keep doing this.

One other thing I am reading right now is excellent science-based information about COVID-19 from our own experts, and others. It’s being organized and compiled by our Division of Continuing Medical Education and you can find it on their web page: CME | COVID-19: Resource Center.

Finally, I will say it again: please do all in your power to stay well. It is the greatest help we can give healthcare workers and everyone we care about at this time.

I have just a few brief and very simple messages I want to share with you.

First, as we make our way through the COVID-19 situation, everyone is impacted and it is understandably unsettling. We are adjusting and learning on the fly as we adapt to a new reality in our important work of teaching and learning, research and community engagement. The importance of working together and supporting one another through this can’t be overstated, while at the same time ensuring we are doing that in appropriate ways given the need for social distancing.

As I mentioned in earlier messages to you in recent days, we need to be patient with each other and as supportive as we each can be. Our medical faculty and our residents are on the frontline in clinical settings helping deliver patient care and we all have an important role in ensuring we do the right things to not increase the burden on the healthcare system—the basics of cleanliness and social distancing measures you are all familiar with now. Please, everyone, do this part diligently!

As well, some helpful information for self-care has been posted on Twitter by Dr. Tamara Hinz, on faculty in our Department of Psychiatry. Thank you, Tamara, for this!

Second, we are still engaged in our mission and at work—this may be slightly different from our normal way of conducting business, but we are on the job, even as we adjust to supporting online learning, more teleconference and other meeting formats, working onsite with appropriate social distancing, working remotely for those who can continue their work responsibilities this way, and all the decisions and impacts of what work and activities continue, are delayed, or cancelled. As we also shift to sorting out childcare with public schools transitioning this week to closure, we will be making more adjustments and this will require further patience.

Finally, given all of the ways in which we are shifting our work and methods of work, I can’t say enough about the amazing response, commitment, great ideas and effort I have seen across our college as we adapt to these rapidly changing circumstances together. My personal message to each and every one of you is this: you are doing an incredible job through tough times! Keep up your amazing work—whether that is on the frontline of care, supporting those on the frontline, as well as supporting our learners and colleagues in a variety of ways.

Remember, if you are not as directly engaged in work in healthcare to suppress COVID-19, it is times like this that a smile or kind word—and we have the technology to do this safely!—makes a huge difference to someone who is anxious, frustrated, down. Your college, our province and our partners need each of us working supportively and together more than ever.

Thank you.

I just realized we are into March and I have not written a blog since early this year. We all hit the ground running in 2020, and as always there is a lot going on! I will highlight a few of those things in today’s blog, starting with great news on the research front.

We have the results of the most recent Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant and Catalyst Grant competitions. A number of our researchers have been successful.

Principal investigators (PI) awarded Project Grants for our college in the fall 2019 competition are:

• Sylvia van der Hurk for her grant Long-term immune activation by a mucosal RSV subunit vaccine: mechanism of action and application to vaccination of elderly
• Rachel Engler-Stringer and her co-investigators, including Dr. Nazeem Muhajarine, for their grant Improving School Food: Universal Integrated Healthy Lunch Intervention Research

We also have CoM faculty leading or participating in Project Grants in other USask colleges:

• Alexandra King, Cameco Chair in Indigenous Health, who is the successful principal investigator in a Project Grant held in the College of Nursing, which is also supported by Co-Investigators Maureen Anderson, Linda Chelico, and Erika Penz.
• John Howland is a co-investigator in a Project Grant held in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition.

Many congratulations to the following individuals for their success in the Catalyst Grant competition:

• Gary Groot and team for their grant Harm Reduction and Residential Supportive Care for High-risk Pregnant Women living with HIV: A Realist Evaluation
• Brenna Bath, Dr. Stacey Lovo, and Dr. Veronica McKinney for their grant Patient experiences of health care access challenges for back pain care across the rural-urban continuum
• Donna Goodridge and team for their grant Addressing Loneliness and Social Isolation: Building Bridges in Seniors’ Housing

This is a great way for our researchers to start off 2020! We are so proud of their work.

As I have previously noted we are in the process of reviewing our approach to admissions. At the same time, the AFMC has led the Future of Admissions in Canada Think Tank (FACTT) with whom I have had the privilege of working with in my role as Chair of the AFMC board’s Standing Committee on Education. There is great debate about tools like the MCAT and the MMI and great agreement on the need for diversity across all dimensions. However, even more fundamental discussions relate to how we find and admit individuals with an affinity for people and the internal drive to serve patients and communities.

Certainly, in undergraduate medical education, we are starting to think differently about admissions at Saskatchewan’s medical school. It’s important to note that changes in admissions processes would be applied with adequate time frames for applicant awareness of requirements, and any changes being considered currently would be in place at the earliest for the 2021/22 academic year.

In response to a recent external review, the college engaged a broad group of stakeholders from across the province to identify the core characteristics we want to see in our future medical students and the best methods to assess for these characteristics. The enthusiastic participants provided rich feedback and it was refreshing to see a lot of the same themes appearing over and over again:

• promoting diversity
• Indigenization
• applicant strengths in both academics and emotional intelligence
• evidence of a connection to Saskatchewan

In order to select students with this broader array of characteristics, stakeholders felt that we need to learn more about our applicants through a holistic lens and selection process. With all of this valuable feedback, Admissions Director Dr. Trustin Domes and his team will continue to engage with our partners and others in the college and will start the process of designing a progressive and innovative Admissions portfolio for our province’s medical school. Watch for a guest blog from Trustin as this work progresses.

Finally, in follow-up to my last blog, Dr. Marilyn Baetz, our vice-dean faculty engagement, and I have been to Regina, Prince Albert, and North Battleford where we met with learners, medical faculty and physician leaders. We received a warm welcome and appreciation of our interest in the work and activities taking place at all of these sites. There is widespread enthusiasm for the College of Medicine and distributed medical education (DME). We received feedback and suggestions for improvements, all of which were constructive.

The educational experience our learners are receiving in all of these communities is outstanding. There is clear need for further expansion of our Saskatchewan Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (currently in Meadow Lake and Estevan) and, in Regina, our RCPSC programs. At the same time, we need to ensure communities have the capacity and resources to take on new educational programs.

In settings where the clinical load seems overwhelming it is hard to imagine taking on educational responsibilities. Of course, this is the typical dilemma where the educational programs are often the ultimate long-term solution to the clinical overload. On the other hand, the experience across the country with those not directly involved in DME is that they are soon asking why a learner has not been assigned to them! Research shows that those involved in clinical teaching have greater career satisfaction and are more likely to stay in their community; as well, there is widespread belief these physicians are more likely to achieve the right balance of innovation in practice and adherence to practice guidelines.

We have further site visits coming up in the next few months: Marilyn and I will be in Moose Jaw on March 26 and Estevan on April 30. Stay tuned for more news on faculty engagement in our college, which is being informed by these conversations across the province.

So as you can see there is a great deal going on at the CoM, and I have only scratched the surface in this blog. As always, I welcome your feedback.