NOSM Holds Second Annual Comprehensive Community Clerkship Retreat in Kenora

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) held its second, highly successful annual Comprehensive Community Clerkship (CCC) Retreat, entitled “Celebration and Collaboration within a Community of Learners,” in Kenora on January 9 – 11, 2009.

The 2008-2009 academic year marks the second year that NOSM medical students are completing clerkships in medium-sized communities throughout the North as part of their third-year studies. Over 130 participants, including NOSM staff, Site Administrative Coordinators, Site Liaison Clinicians, Local NOSM Group (LNG) members, and medical students from clerkship communities across Northern Ontario attended the 2009 retreat. Participants shared their experiences, and in a combination of whole group, streamed, and concurrent sessions, explored topics of relevance to the distinctive CCC component of NOSM’s model of community engaged medical education.

Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Founding Dean, says ongoing open dialogue between CCC participants is invaluable to the continuous enhancement of the community-engaged model of medical education for which NOSM has gained international recognition. “This retreat was an opportunity to spend time with each other, ‘compare notes,’ and share our experiences and insights into the Comprehensive Community Clerkship program so that we may further our common goal of educating physicians who understand and appreciate the unique features and benefits of practicing medicine in Northern communities,” he said.

Dr. William B. Shore, Mentor Facilitator and Director of Medical Education Program Development for the Department of Family and Community at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), was the keynote speaker of the retreat. Dr. Shore’s presentation, entitled “Perspectives from the Longitudinal Clerkship at the University of California, San Francisco,” provided retreat attendees with an overview of UCSF’s new clinical training program named Parnassus Integrated Student Clinical Experiences (PISCES), wherein each year 16 undergraduate medical students receive clinical training at local health centres.

Community engaged medical education is a distinctive hallmark of NOSM. Currently, 12 communities participate in NOSM’s Comprehensive Community Clerkship program: Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Temiskaming Shores, Sioux Lookout, Parry Sound, North Bay, Huntsville, Kenora, Bracebridge, Fort Frances, Kapuskasing, and Dryden.