I am becoming quite expert in navigating the look of confusion on my colleagues’ faces when I tell them that I am completing my master’s in anthropology. I can see behind their glazed eyes, in real time, the exotic mental images they are conjuring of the famous cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead or the comical similarities in social functioning between me and fictional physical anthropologist Temperance Brennan. A few remember that Paul Farmer is an anthropologist …
A Resident’s Perspective on CBME
Editor’s note: This is the second post in a series of posts related to CBME. Read the medical student perspective here. This post was written by a current Royal College EM trainee at Queen’s University who has a keen interest in education and who has been extensively involved in the transition to CBME locally and nationally. Competency based medical education (CBME) – is it an ideology, an educational overhaul, or a make-work project from …
The Opioid Crisis: Centre for Excellence in Emergency Preparedness Review
Editor’s Note: Dr. Carl Jarvis is an Emergency Medicine Physician, and a director for the Centre for Excellence in Emergency Preparedness (CEEP). Nationally, CEEP’s mandate is to support and inform structures and processes in ensuring an standard of excellence in health emergency preparedness. Most recently, the organization has taken to addressing the growing opioid crisis within our country, here Dr. Jarvis helps to provide some further insights to first line providers. Opioid crisis: why is it …
The (real) battle against strep throat
In the past week, there has been some national buzz around: “Why strep throat is causing serious complications, from amputations to death”. This is quite a headline, especially for those in the emergency medicine community who are moving more and more towards a practice of not routinely treating strep pharyngitis with antibiotics. I can already picture some of our patients rushing to the ER at the first sign of a sore throat, with a …
Emergency medicine autonomy is under siege
The opposite of a motivated physician is a burnt-out physician. In healthcare, preventing physician burnout and promoting physician wellness is of increasing importance. Healthcare organizations are under tremendous pressure to retain quality physicians and push physicians to perform at the highest level possible. The key to getting these results is to truly understand what motivates physicians to do their job, and to foster it. I recently watched a YouTube video1 that summarized a Daniel …
Beyond Medical Education: SoMe in Disasters
In the world of medicine, Social Media (SoMe) has arguably made the greatest impact in medical education. What started as scattered simple blog posts on random topics of interest by keen individuals, movements like FOAMed have evolved over the past few years with establishment of robust frameworks for dissemination and active discussion around medical topics (for more details have a look here and here). But is there more to SoMe beyond medical education? Information …