Nearly half (49%) of family doctors recently surveyed by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) reported working beyond their desired capacity, the organization told CMAJ. “High or severe work-related burnout is experienced around four times more by family physicians working beyond their desired capacity (32.1%) than those working at the desired capacity (8.7%).”
Family physicians who reported working beyond their desired capacity were also three times more likely to say they were considering or taking a break from work. And more than 15% of those working beyond their desired capacity said they “generally feel pretty good, but there are trying days,” compared to nearly half (44%) of those working at desired capacity.
In Ontario, doctors do not get paid overtime, “but we do know they work long hours,” according to the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). Almost three-quarters (73%) of 2,649 physicians surveyed by the OMA in 2021 reported some level of burnout, up from two-thirds (66%) the previous year.
“Physicians retiring prematurely, reducing their workloads, changing their scope of practice or leaving medicine entirely in response to burnout will exacerbate the situation for remaining physicians, resulting in a potential domino effect,” the OMA told CMAJ.
Read more on Overworked health workers are “past the point of exhaustion” via CMAJ.
CGSHE Speaker Series presents, Dr. Martha Paynter, Abortion to Abolition: The Path to Reproductive Health & Justice in Canada
This Sexual & Reproductive Health Week, Dr. Martha Paynter joins us for the CGSHE Speaker Series. She will discuss the unique and progressive legal standing of abortion in Canada, and outline our greatest threats to reproductive justice. She will explore how the abortion movement can adopt the philosophies of abolition to make the next leap in improving reproductive health and justice.
Dr. Martha Paynter (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick and a registered nurse working in abortion and reproductive health care. Dr. Paynter is founder and director of Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice, and is the author of Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada, published by Fernwood Publishing.
“The Fraser Valley Biennial exhibition always promises to be a dynamic, collective representation of exceptional artwork produced in the last two years by artists who call the Fraser Valley region home. Since its start in 2011, the Biennial has showcased the work of more than 250 local and regional artists, many of whom we have seen go on to other exciting opportunities and great successes!
For the 2023 Biennial, we are pleased to welcome guest curator Candace Couse, who recently joined the Department of Visual Art at the University of the Fraser Valley as an Assistant Professor. Couse has set the theme for this year’s Biennial as ‘the body,’ and has encouraged artists to explore this concept as broadly as possible. The resulting exhibition includes work in a variety of media that approach ‘the body’ through a variety of lenses, including: issues of ability and disability, disease, strength and resilience, athleticism, tissues/organs/microorganisms, the five senses, and the relationship between the body and technology. Throughout the exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to reflect on the body as both a literal and symbolic object, as well as on their own embodied experiences.”
“Born in 1922, the third child and first daughter in a family of nine children, Lillie Johnson came to Canada from Jamaica in 1960. She was already a trained and experienced nurse, teacher, and midwife, having worked in both Jamaica and the U.K. Johnson went on to earn her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Toronto, and spent her career in Ontario serving in many different capacities. She taught a course in Child and Maternal Health at Humber College, and then became the first Black director of public health in Ontario’s Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark district.”Born in 1922, the third child and first daughter in a family of nine children, Lillie Johnson came to Canada from Jamaica in 1960. She was already a trained and experienced nurse, teacher, and midwife, having worked in both Jamaica and the U.K. Johnson went on to earn her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Toronto, and spent her career in Ontario serving in many different capacities. She taught a course in Child and Maternal Health at Humber College, and then became the first Black director of public health in Ontario’s Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark district.
The accomplishment for which Lillie Johnson is best known, though, is the founding of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario in 1981, which still exists today. She was indispensable in lobbying the government for the inclusion of Sickle Cell Disease in newborn screening in Ontario. Incredibly accomplished in her field, Johnson has received numerous different awards and honours in her lifetime, including being the torch bearer for the Pan-Am Games in 2015, and being invested into the Order of Ontario (the province’s highest honour) in 2010.
Now nearly 100 years old, Lillie Johnson has had a tremendous impact on health care in Ontario, and remains dedicated and passionate about family, health care, and education. In 2015, she published her memoir, entitled ‘My Dream.'”
Learn more about Lillie Johnson via The Museum of Healthcare.
From family medicine clinics to specialist units around British Columbia, there are more than 1300 UBC resident doctors training in regional, rural and remote communities.
Guided by UBC clinical faculty, resident doctors provide compassionate care to families and patients, and play a crucial role in our healthcare system. They also contribute their skills and knowledge beyond the clinic.
“Resident doctors support the education of medical students, conduct research and strengthen health care as they train to become expert practitioners in numerous specialties,” says Dr. Ravi Sidhu, Associate Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education. “I am grateful for their dedication to serving and enhancing health of communities across B.C.”
Thank you to all UBC resident doctors for the care you provide communities across B.C.
As part of Resident Doctors Appreciation Week, we caught up with a few UBC resident doctors to learn more about their experience by asking the following question: “How has residency training informed your future practice?”
Read more about UBC resident doctors Dayle Ostapiuk, Brian Hwanki Kim, and Mehar Kang responses here.
Because of the negative consequences of concussion, considerable research efforts have been directed toward understanding the risk factors for sport-related concussion (SRC) and its outcomes to better inform strategies for risk reduction. Girls are suggested to have an increased risk of concussion, warranting exploration into sex-dependent variations in concussion presentation and management, with the potential that this information might inform sex-specific rules directed toward risk reduction within sports.
Objective
To compare sex-associated differences in epidemiology and concussion management in adolescent soccer players within a prospective, longitudinal high school injury surveillance project.
Design, Setting, and Participants
This prospective, longitudinal cohort study assessed male and female soccer athletes from all high schools in the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) during academic years 2016-2017 to 2018-2019.
Exposures
Sport-related concussion captured in the MHSAA Head Injury Reporting System.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Outcomes included details regarding each documented SRC event, including injury mechanism, immediate management, and return-to-play time. Multiple comparisons were made between male and female athletes regarding SRC risk, mechanism, short-term management, and outcomes.
Results
A total of 43 741 male and 39 637 female soccer athletes participated in MHSAA soccer during the 3 consecutive academic years of study (2016-2017: n = 751 schools; 2017-2018: n = 750 schools; and 2018-2019: n = 747 schools). During the 3 years of surveillance, 1507 of the 83 378 soccer athletes (1.8%) were reported to have SRC during soccer participation, including 557 boys (37.0%) and 950 girls (63.0%). Documented SRC risk in female soccer participants was greater than in male soccer participants (risk ratio, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.69-2.09; P < .001). Male soccer athletes most often sustained SRC from contact with another player (48.4%), whereas SRCs in female soccer players recorded in the Head Injury Reporting System were most often from nonplayer contact events (41.9%; P < .001). Adolescent male soccer players with a documented SRC were more likely to be removed from play on the day of injury (odds ratio, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.15-2.06; P = .004). Although the overall median time to return to play was 11 days (interquartile range [IQR], 7-15 days), male athletes typically returned 2 days earlier than female athletes (median, 10 [IQR, 7-14] days vs 12 [IQR, 7-16] days; Peto test P < .001).
Conclusions and Relevance
In this cohort study, sex-associated differences were revealed among adolescent soccer athletes in SRC risk, mechanism of injury, immediate management, and outcomes in injuries documented in a statewide injury reporting system. Thus, consideration might be given to sex-specific approaches to participation and concussion management in the sport.
Association of Sex With Adolescent Soccer Concussion Incidence and Characteristics via JAMA.
“Scientists have been developing magnetically controlled soft robots for years. Most existing materials for these bots are made of either stretchy but solid materials, which can’t pass through the narrowest of spaces, or magnetic liquids, which are fluid but unable to carry heavy objects (SN: 7/18/19).
In the new study, researchers blended both approaches after finding inspiration from nature (SN: 3/3/21). Sea cucumbers, for instance, ‘can very rapidly and reversibly change their stiffness,’ says mechanical engineer Carmel Majidi of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. ‘The challenge for us as engineers is to mimic that in the soft materials systems.’
So the team turned to gallium, a metal that melts at about 30° Celsius — slightly above room temperature. Rather than connecting a heater to a chunk of the metal to change its state, the researchers expose it to a rapidly changing magnetic field to liquefy it. The alternating magnetic field generates electricity within the gallium, causing it to heat up and melt. The material resolidifies when left to cool to room temperature.”
Learn more on “These shape-shifting devices melt and re-form thanks to magnetic fields” via ScienceNews.
“Army nurse preparing to enter a COVID-19 positive room to treat patients”. Artist: Sgt. 1st Class Curt Loter via Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital.
“Diagnostic errors are especially prone to raise concern among clinicians because they are associated with physicians’ self-identity and are often viewed as personal failings resulting in feelings of shame rather than as a signal to investigate the systems issues behind the problem. Because the underlying data are often imperfect, physicians often challenge their accuracy rather than interpret them as a call for improvement. … The health care profession needs to accept that physicians, being human, are fallible—systems of care to reduce diagnostic errors to a minimum must be designed. ED overcrowding is not an emergency medicine problem. It is a system problem and requires a system-level solution. Specific diagnosis-focused solutions might include checklists or cognitive aids that are pushed real time to clinicians, capturing, correcting, and preventing diagnostic errors in a timely and blame-free way. Machine learning, better access to advanced imaging and specialist consultation, development of reliable diagnostic biomarkers, improvements in health information technology, and clinical decision support need to be studied and employed as parts of the solution. Training modules that target the big 3 disease entities need to be developed at the medical school, residency, and practicing physician levels for all specialties involved in diagnosing those patients.”
Misdiagnosis in the Emergency DepartmentTime for a System Solution via JAMA.
“Mohs micrographic surgery is often used to remove basal cell cancers. During Mohs surgery the tumor is shaved away in thin layers, one layer at a time. Each layer is checked immediately under a microscope.
This allows the surgeon to preserve as much healthy skin as possible while removing all of the cancer and a thin margin of healthy skin. This surgery is a highly effective treatment for basal cell cancer and often has very good cosmetic results.
Basal cell cancers form in the epidermis, the protective, outermost layer of our skin. The cancerous cells invade surrounding tissues, usually forming a painless pearly bump.”
More on An effective treatment for basal cell cancers via Reviewed by Howard E. LeWine, MD, Chief Medical Editor, via Harvard Health Publishing.
Accelerating Access to Abortion Care Through Policy-partnered Research
In this talk, Dr. Sarah Munro will introduce attendees to the landscape of abortion access in Canada and the factors that facilitate uptake of stigmatized practices like abortion care. This presentation will also highlight the characteristics of integrated knowledge translation that lead to abortion policy and systems change, including how community partnerships shape and accelerate this work.
Dr. Sarah Munro is a qualitative health services researcher whose focus is knowledge translation and implementation science in women’s health. She is a Co-Director of the Contraception and Abortion Research Team (CART-GRAC), an Assistant Professor in the UBC Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and a Scientist with the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences (CHÉOS). Her program of research is supported by a Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar Award and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
UBC Family Practice Residency Program: Abbotsford-Mission Site 