Article

February 10, 2010

Join our community conversations

February 22 – Msgr. Leo Day Auditorium, St. Agnes Church,
                      Halifax, 7p.m.
February 23 – Cari Complex Multi-Purpose Room, UPEI, Charlottetown, 7p.m.
February 24 – Wilmot United Church Hall, Fredericton, 12 noon.
February 24 – Whitebone Lounge, Thomas Condon Student Centre,
                      UNBSJ, Saint John, 7p.m.
February 25 – Horizon Achievement Centre, Sydney, 7p.m.

Rescheduled Kentville meeting:
March 10 – Kentville Volunteer Fire Department, Kentville 7p.m.

Starting Feb.22 in Halifax, the Dalhousie medical school will strike up a series of six community conversations with Nova Scotians, New Brunswickers and Prince Edward Islanders to find out what qualities they expect in their physicians: what makes a good doctor?

The initiative, the first of its kind for the school, has been developed to gain greater insight into the community needs and expectations of its Maritime grassroots base, said Thomas Marrie, M.D., dean of the Dalhousie medical school.

“We are in the process of developing a new undergraduate medical curriculum and we want to make sure that the kind of physicians it will produce will meet the requirements of the people we are set up to serve,” he explained.

“Our primary support comes from Maritime taxpayers through their provincial governments, and most of our medical graduates come from the region and spend their medical careers here, as family doctors or as specialists in other medical fields,” he said.

Come! Join in one of our Community Conversations! We have a chair waiting for you.

“We have our thoughts about what constitutes a good doctor,” said Marrie, "and we’ve incorporated those qualities into our objectives for our new curriculum.

'At the same time, we’re open to new and different ideas from our regional constituency and to using them to shape and improve the way we train doctors.

'We’re hoping interested people in Kentville, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Saint John, and Fredericton will turn out and share their opinions with us.”

Facilitating the meetings in this series of public consultations will be Dr. Christy Simpson, associate professor of bioethics at Dalhousie.

Anyone interested in the medical school initiative, but unable to attend the scheduled public meetings, is welcome to contribute by commenting on the question: What makes a good doctor?

 

 

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Enquiries:  

Allison Gerrard, Dalhousie Medical School, 902.494.1789/ 902.222.1917 allison.gerrard@dal.ca