Table 1.
The CanMEDS competencies and the educational program in LTC
| CanMEDS COMPETENCY | DESCRIPTION OF HOW COMPETENCY IS BEING MET |
|---|---|
| Medical expert | On-site, case-based clinical exposure to topics such as polypharmacy, assessments of capacity, care of dementia, and prevention of falls helps to fill important gaps in the content of family medicine training programs |
| Communicator | Residents learn how to gather information from families, interprofessional staff, and patients with complex medical and social histories and to lead discussions during family care conferences |
| Collaborator | Residents are trained to work collaboratively with interprofessional teams that include nurse practitioners, registered nurses, personal support workers, dieticians, physical and occupational therapists, and recreation therapists Emphasis is placed on fostering better understanding of the knowledge and skills that each of these core disciplines brings to the management of LTC patients |
| Manager | Residents learn to conduct family meetings and interprofessional care conferences during which broader organizational issues, such as the responsibilities of a medical director in an LTC setting or how to organize a combined call schedule for a community of LTC providers, are discussed |
| Health advocate | A key focus of the LTC program is to teach residents the importance of meeting both the health needs of individual patients and the needs of the community they serve; in many communities, this includes taking on a substantial role in LTC |
| Scholar | Journal articles are regularly assigned to be read during LTC rotations to highlight key evidence-based guidelines or approaches to specific cases under review in nursing homes |
| Professional | Resident physicians are held to the highest standards of ethical practice and professional behaviour Challenging residents with ethical scenarios has been identified as a useful teaching strategy, eg, asking “How would you respond if you witnessed misuse of restraints in a nursing home?” |
CanMEDS—Canadian Medical Directives for specialists, LTC—long-term care.