Formal Mentorship & Advising

Co-Speaker, Career Planning Session: CaRMS – How to Interview, MD Program, University of Alberta, December 2011

Assisted in discussion of the interview process by relating my experience of interviewing for Canadian Paediatric Residency programs with fourth year medical students. Provided general points about the variable interviewing process, tips for the interview and heavy travel schedule, and answered questions.

Mentor, Resident-Medical Student Shadowing Program, MD Program, University of Alberta, 2009-2010

In this “near-peer” shadowing experience, I was paired with a first year medical student (Dr. Brandon Cai, now a PGY-2 Family Medicine Resident, University of Calgary), who shadowed me during clinical activities for eight months. During this time, he had the opportunity to observe and participate in clinical activities under my supervision in a variety of clinical settings, which we tried to arrange on the basis of my differing training experiences in first year paediatric residency and his broad interests. These included outpatient general paediatric and paediatric nephrology clinics, inpatient care in paediatric hospitalist medicine and child psychiatry, as well as time on night call for hospitalist paediatrics and in the OR and wards during my paediatric surgery rotation. He spent approximately 35-40 hours shadowing me over the year, and over that time we had the opportunity to develop history and physical exam skills, as well as practice with written and verbal communication, in addition to gaining familiarity with the various clinical settings. I really enjoyed this experience, personally, and having recently graduated from the University of Alberta medical school, was also able to relate to Dr. Cai’s stage of training and have some informal discussions about the MD program, general career advice, and about life as a medical student.

This mentorship was a volunteer experience as part of a Masters research project for Dr. Simon Turner. The results of his project can be found here, and showed several successful outcomes.

University of Alberta MD Class of 2010 Support Group Leader, 2006-2007

Each year, the first year medical students are placed into support groups of 6-10 students, which meet roughly once every two months throughout the year for a meal and a chance to discuss their experiences and chat on an informal basis with a physician and two second year medical students. Led by Dr. Stephen Caldwell, Dr. Daniel Miller and myself, we enjoyed this mentorship to the younger students through our roles as support group leaders, by planning and arranging for some relaxed and informative discussions, both at the University campus and at some delicious local restaurants!