Faculty to Student Ratio?

[Tee88]

Hey there,

 

I was wondering if anyone could comment on the faculty to medical student ratio at U of T?

[ACHQ]

Hey there,

 

I was wondering if anyone could comment on the faculty to medical student ratio at U of T?

 

Do you mean for small group sessions?

 

If so it depends on the session (and sometimes even academy). For seminars its usually 1:10-20, For PBL its 1:6-8.

 

For clinical skills its varies from academy to academy. I know someone people have 1 preceptor, some have 2 and others have 3. The clinical skills groups are usually 5-6 people. So its 1-3:5-6

[Tee88]

Do you mean for small group sessions?

 

If so it depends on the session (and sometimes even academy). For seminars its usually 1:10-20, For PBL its 1:6-8.

 

For clinical skills its varies from academy to academy. I know someone people have 1 preceptor, some have 2 and others have 3. The clinical skills groups are usually 5-6 people. So its 1-3:5-6

 

 

Thanks so much! I'm just trying to get a feel for the sense of community and how small/how big the class sizes are. Do you feel like you get to know your preceptors well, more so on a first-name basis?

[ACHQ]

Thanks so much! I'm just trying to get a feel for the sense of community and how small/how big the class sizes are. Do you feel like you get to know your preceptors well, more so on a first-name basis?

 

Our seminar leaders keep changing (although the group usually stays the same). From my experience, seminar leaders are usually the same for the same topic (e.g. endocrine vs renal vs resp etc...).

 

PBL I feel that we get to know the preceptor pretty well, and same goes for clinical skills (mine have stayed the same all year). Again from my experience I've gotten to know my clinical skills and PBL preceptors very well, leading to observership opportunities. It also depends on the preceptor. If they are awesome they make the experience that much better (and you get to know them better too).

 

Even our seminar leaders are extremely approachable with many of them willing to have us tag along for observerships.

[Tee88]

Our seminar leaders keep changing (although the group usually stays the same). From my experience, seminar leaders are usually the same for the same topic (e.g. endocrine vs renal vs resp etc...).

 

PBL I feel that we get to know the preceptor pretty well, and same goes for clinical skills (mine have stayed the same all year). Again from my experience I've gotten to know my clinical skills and PBL preceptors very well, leading to observership opportunities. It also depends on the preceptor. If they are awesome they make the experience that much better (and you get to know them better too).

 

Even our seminar leaders are extremely approachable with many of them willing to have us tag along for observerships.

 

That sounds great, thanks for taking time to answer back! I just have a few more questions for you if that's okay

 

So if I have this right, you have seminars (lectures) that give you the basic background of cases that you would have in PBL sessions and then exposure to clinical skills (where you might actually see these PBL cases come into action?)...

 

How soon are you placed in a clinical setting and how did you know which academy was right for you?

[Guest Fresh_Underwear]

The major consensus I feel with U of T lecturers are that they are there because they feel it is worth their time to come in and teach. They're mostly clinicians and all of them have very busy schedule. They're there because they want to be there, so it usually mean they would try their 110% to educate the students and make the learning environment a very fulfilling one.

 

@ U of T, you learn all your theory and concepts through big lectures with all the students. Application of theory are usually sorted out through much smaller seminars/labs (anatomy), where questions and discussions are encouraged. PBL are there to stimulate more investigative approach to medicine, where you to look deeper at the underlying causes of symptoms and come up with your own differential diagnosis (similar to what you do in clinical setting). There are also tutorials, which are optional, that are meant to help students with difficulties and questions on certain topics.

 

Throughout the year we also have clinical skills training, which is basically learning the clinical skills from how to conduct interviews to how to perform physical exams. You begin learning this in your first year (within the first month of school in fact).

 

We also learn about community health and Canadian health care structure. This involves a lot of field work where we go out and observe first hand the different branches of the healthcare system and how it contribute to the overall patient health.

 

U of T also emphasizes the interprofessional aspect of health care, which encourages all branches of health care training to work together toward a common goal. It also encourages communication between different branches of health care, from the nurses to the social workers.

 

Don't worry about academies, you don't know which academy is right for you. All I can say is, you can't pick a wrong academy because you'll love the one you're in .

[ACHQ]

That sounds great, thanks for taking time to answer back! I just have a few more questions for you if that's okay

 

So if I have this right, you have seminars (lectures) that give you the basic background of cases that you would have in PBL sessions and then exposure to clinical skills (where you might actually see these PBL cases come into action?)...

 

How soon are you placed in a clinical setting and how did you know which academy was right for you?

 

My boy Fresh_Underwear answered most of your questions.

 

Just to add. In first term (STF) we don't have many seminars during anatomy, mostly just labs where we dissect and learn the stuff. But there some which are more clinically oriented. After the anatomy block we have a lot more seminars, especially in MNU. From what I hear 2nd year is the same.

 

In terms of how soon we were placed in a clinical setting, If you count clinical skills, then like the 2nd or 3rd week of medical school we started seeing patients. In terms of academy, each has its great features. I have a biased towards my academy so even the "drawbacks" (which aren't even related to education, there related to travel) don't bother me that much.

[Tee88]

My boy Fresh_Underwear answered most of your questions.

 

Just to add. In first term (STF) we don't have many seminars during anatomy, mostly just labs where we dissect and learn the stuff. But there some which are more clinically oriented. After the anatomy block we have a lot more seminars, especially in MNU. From what I hear 2nd year is the same.

 

In terms of how soon we were placed in a clinical setting, If you count clinical skills, then like the 2nd or 3rd week of medical school we started seeing patients. In terms of academy, each has its great features. I have a biased towards my academy so even the "drawbacks" (which aren't even related to education, there related to travel) don't bother me that much.

 

Thank you both so much , if I have any more questions I'll definitely post up here!