Which medical schools will be starting virtual?

[DrOtter]

1 hour ago, Toaster Strudel said:

You are mistaken.  Check the "Weekly Updates" tab: 

"All classes are online, students must not attend in person."

Source:https://med.uottawa.ca/undergraduate/updates-regarding-covid-19-ugme-program-activities

This is the update for the current class. Their update for "Preclerskhip" says:

PSD/DAC, Clinique simulée to be offered (in part) virtually in the Fall.

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for at least some in-person components!

[Psych]

In case anyone is wondering, I just received an email from uOttawa stating the following: "Please note that the Faculty has not reached a decision yet in regards to how the courses will be delivered in the fall 2020 term. A formal decision should be reached by the end of June. It is highly possible that the courses will be on-line with some components that may require your presence on campus"

So they definitely have not decided yet, but it looks like most likely it will be some online and some in-person (hopefully)

[helpinghand]

now that schools have mostly revealed their plans, which med schools are completely virtual and which ones have some sort of in person component? Out of sheer curiosity! For western, we are 100% online in 1st year other than observerships lol and we found that out today

[bruh]

7 hours ago, helpinghand said:

now that schools have mostly revealed their plans, which med schools are completely virtual and which ones have some sort of in person component? Out of sheer curiosity! For western, we are 100% online in 1st year other than observerships lol and we found that out today

UofT is actually offering a lot of in-person opportunities. Only CBL and clinical skills are online. Lectures and anatomy labs are in-person but not mandatory to attend. Our schedule has in-person stuff almost every day. Shadowing is still up in the air, and events/club interests are probably going to be online. This is all for the fall term. Winter is to be decided later on. It’s not ideal but I’m grateful that UofT is doing as much in-person as they could. 

EDIT: I should note that there is a 50-person cap on lecture attendance so I have no idea how that’s actually gonna work lol 

[CGreens]

1 hour ago, bruh said:

UofT is actually offering a lot of in-person opportunities. Only CBL and clinical skills are online. Lectures and anatomy labs are in-person but not mandatory to attend. Our schedule has in-person stuff almost every day. Shadowing is still up in the air, and events/club interests are probably going to be online. This is all for the fall term. Winter is to be decided later on. It’s not ideal but I’m grateful that UofT is doing as much in-person as they could. 

EDIT: I should note that there is a 50-person cap on lecture attendance so I have no idea how that’s actually gonna work lol 

Anatomy labs at UofT are not truly in person. The usual modules that we’d do in person with prosections and dissection are online. There are optional guided prosections with a TA that you can sign up for in addition to the online content to do in person.

Basically, you don’t need to be in Toronto for the Fall, it’s possible to do it all online and they’re even polling us to understand our time zones for test start times.

Shadowing for the time being is still not allowed (not up in the air, wouldn’t expect it to be allowed until the winter either). 
 

Edit: from the second year (2T3) perspective, could be different from first years 

[bruh]

21 minutes ago, CGreens said:

Anatomy labs at UofT are not truly in person. The usual modules that we’d do in person with prosections and dissection are online. There are optional guided prosections with a TA that you can sign up for in addition to the online content to do in person.

Basically, you don’t need to be in Toronto for the Fall, it’s possible to do it all online and they’re even polling us to understand our time zones for test start times.

Shadowing for the time being is still not allowed (not up in the air, wouldn’t expect it to be allowed until the winter either). 
 

Edit: from the second year (2T3) perspective, could be different from first years 

Thank you for the clarification on anatomy. As an incoming student I don’t even know the difference between prosections or dissections, so I just assumed it was all in-person, but it seems like the more fun stuff will be online, unfortunately. 

With that said, there is still opportunity for on campus presence quite often (2-4 times every week) and the vast majority of students are moving to Toronto and want to attend as much in-person activities as possible. I think only a select few have opted to stay in different time-zones.

Shadowing is “to be refrained from” for now but based on the email we got it’s not set in stone whether it will be disallowed for the entirety of Fall, unless a different message has been relayed to the upper years. 

“It depends on public health regulations, capacity at the hospitals and community clinics (in terms of learners and PPE), and the ability for the physician to take on more learners while protecting your health and safety. When capacity allows, it is possible that some physicians will accept Foundations students to join them in person or at a virtual clinic. At the moment we are asking that students refrain from any shadowing opportunities both virtually and in person”.

[CGreens]

33 minutes ago, bruh said:

Thank you for the clarification on anatomy. As an incoming student I don’t even know the difference between prosections or dissections, so I just assumed it was all in-person, but it seems like the more fun stuff will be online, unfortunately. 

With that said, there is still opportunity for on campus presence quite often (2-4 times every week) and the vast majority of students are moving to Toronto and want to attend as much in-person activities as possible. I think only a select few have opted to stay in different time-zones.

Shadowing is “to be refrained from” for now but based on the email we got it’s not set in stone whether it will be disallowed for the entirety of Fall, unless a different message has been relayed to the upper years. 

“It depends on public health regulations, capacity at the hospitals and community clinics (in terms of learners and PPE), and the ability for the physician to take on more learners while protecting your health and safety. When capacity allows, it is possible that some physicians will accept Foundations students to join them in person or at a virtual clinic. At the moment we are asking that students refrain from any shadowing opportunities both virtually and in person”.

While true that that is what they communicated for shadowing, I think its important to read between the lines a bit and not let your hopes get too high (and maybe be pleasantly surprised if they allow it). Note that I'm not trying to be argumentative or contrarian, just trying to share what I know, which is formed partly from my experiences at UofT last school year. What I "know" could be wrong, dated, or misinformed.  

My understanding through previous communications is that UofT is prioritizing the current clerkship students in clinical settings. Due to the pause in clinical activities related to COVID, there will be a period of time with a double cohort of clerkship students as the now 4th years finish up their core while the 3rd years enter clerkship. Once this period passes, then there would be an opportunity perhaps for us to shadow (with that being said, shadowing for first years only starts in October generally. On MedSIS click the CAP tab to see previous students shadowing opportunities btw if you want to look ahead). I am personally only expecting to be able to shadow again starting in the Winter, with perhaps some opportunity for virtual shadowing in the fall (though I am not sure how this will be set up re: in person with the physician or connecting remotely). At the same time, this is also still all flexible to the COVID situation as I also expect numbers to rise again in the Fall, especially within Toronto (e.g., returning students, elementary/secondary schools, etc).

[bruh]

1 hour ago, CGreens said:

While true that that is what they communicated for shadowing, I think its important to read between the lines a bit and not let your hopes get too high (and maybe be pleasantly surprised if they allow it). Note that I'm not trying to be argumentative or contrarian, just trying to share what I know, which is formed partly from my experiences at UofT last school year. What I "know" could be wrong, dated, or misinformed.  

My understanding through previous communications is that UofT is prioritizing the current clerkship students in clinical settings. Due to the pause in clinical activities related to COVID, there will be a period of time with a double cohort of clerkship students as the now 4th years finish up their core while the 3rd years enter clerkship. Once this period passes, then there would be an opportunity perhaps for us to shadow (with that being said, shadowing for first years only starts in October generally. On MedSIS click the CAP tab to see previous students shadowing opportunities btw if you want to look ahead). I am personally only expecting to be able to shadow again starting in the Winter, with perhaps some opportunity for virtual shadowing in the fall (though I am not sure how this will be set up re: in person with the physician or connecting remotely). At the same time, this is also still all flexible to the COVID situation as I also expect numbers to rise again in the Fall, especially within Toronto (e.g., returning students, elementary/secondary schools, etc).

I appreciate all your comments. So cool to see on MedSIS all these different specialties offering shadowing opportunities! Honestly, I think not being able to shadow in the fall won't be a huge detriment. Would we be able to shadow at other hospitals too? I only see the affiliated hospitals on MedSIS. I was wondering if one is able to shadow surgeons in non-academic, small-town settings, for example. 

[CGreens]

1 minute ago, bruh said:

I appreciate all your comments. So cool to see on MedSIS all these different specialties offering shadowing opportunities! Honestly, I think not being able to shadow in the fall won't be a huge detriment. Would we be able to shadow at other hospitals too? I only see the affiliated hospitals on MedSIS. I was wondering if one is able to shadow surgeons in non-academic, small-town settings, for example. 

That is a good outlook to have for now. Shadowing in the Winter was definitely more useful compared to the fall as you definitely had more clinical knowledge under your belt to make sense of what was going on (ITM in the fall is useful for background info and introducing you to medical school and how physicians think, but it isn't until you get to CPC that the really useful clinical information starts being taught in class/clinical skill/CBL). In the past we have been able to shadow at non-UofT affiliated hospitals. During the fall, you'll get a lecture that goes over all the procedures for how to approach shadowing. Basically with any UofT hospital (including Mississauga hospitals, and any of the academy sites - they don't have to be just the academic ones) you can set up an observership basically just by emailing the physician and logging the experience prior to shadowing. You have to log it for it to count as a "curricular experience" so that appropriate legal/liability mechanisms are in place to cover you. With outside hospitals you have to give at least 3-weeks notice for approval of your observership. I believe the rationale is so that they can arrange appropriate legal/liability coverage (though I could be wrong/misremembering what was said). One caveat is I'm not sure how it would work if the outside hospital or site is associated with another medical school. 

[Anon1]

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[MDLD]

For Queen's: 

The term will therefore be divided into three zones, (Red, Yellow and Green).

Green: Online learning, follow public health guidelines

Yellow: Online learning, Quarantine at home, personal CoVID screening, no travel outside of kingston

Red: Small group, whole class and in person sessions, Covid Screening, no travel outside of kingston. 

First years start with 4 weeks of green,  2 weeks of yellow, 5 weeks of red and then 5 weeks of green. 

 

 

 

[helpinghand]

26 minutes ago, MDLD said:

For Queen's: 

The term will therefore be divided into three zones, (Red, Yellow and Green).

Green: Online learning, follow public health guidelines

Yellow: Online learning, Quarantine at home, personal CoVID screening, no travel outside of kingston

Red: Small group, whole class and in person sessions, Covid Screening, no travel outside of kingston. 

First years start with 4 weeks of green,  2 weeks of yellow, 5 weeks of red and then 5 weeks of green. 

 

 

 

I love the effort they put in to that plan!

[petitmonstre111]

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[teeezyyy]

Its nice to see some schools combining some in-person stuff with online stuff. At UAlberta, everything is 100% online, lectures are a given but the small group stuff too.

[,,aow]

On 8/13/2020 at 4:49 PM, MDLD said:

For Queen's: 

The term will therefore be divided into three zones, (Red, Yellow and Green).

Green: Online learning, follow public health guidelines

Yellow: Online learning, Quarantine at home, personal CoVID screening, no travel outside of kingston

Red: Small group, whole class and in person sessions, Covid Screening, no travel outside of kingston. 

First years start with 4 weeks of green,  2 weeks of yellow, 5 weeks of red and then 5 weeks of green. 

 

 

 

No travel outside of kingston for 5 weeks+?

Aw that must be a bit hard for some students to not visit family in a nearby city during the weekend.

[James Nystead]

26 minutes ago, FocacciaBread said:

No travel outside of kingston for 5 weeks+?

Aw that must be a bit hard for some students to not visit family in a nearby city during the weekend.

Is that an honour system? Seems hard to track and enforce

[IMislove]

32 minutes ago, James Nystead said:

Is that an honour system? Seems hard to track and enforce

Yep, but if someone reports you and it gets confirmed, good old professionalism lapse baby.

gunna be an interesting semester.

[,,aow]

2 minutes ago, IMislove said:

Yep, but if someone reports you and it gets confirmed, good old professionalism lapse baby.

gunna be an interesting semester.

Yikes. It will just make parents / partners / friends visit Kingston instead, which is counteractive. 

[Iamokayyyyyy]

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