Department's Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division Hosts Career Night
On April 8, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) Division hosted its 4th MFM Career Night. Attendees included representatives from the TAHSN sites, as well as wider GTA sites that had a vested interest in the wider expansion of our division. Site division heads from the TAHSN sites, representatives/ department chiefs from community sites, as well as new MFM recruits to the greater GTA community brainstormed about career and program development opportunities. Discussions also included strategic linkages and partnerships between traditional “academic” sites and community sites that could maximize both clinical and academic/quality improvement/research development. Current fellows and residents also had an opportunity to network and explore career opportunities.
Our “pioneer” recruits (Drs. Mei-Dan, Menzies, Cohen and Zhang) gave critical feedback on experiences to date that will inform improvements for the next MFM positions.
Some general principles that came to the fore included:
- The importance of pre-planning and infrastructure development prior to hiring.
- The formal partnering of each community site with a TAHSN site, including a strong recommendation for a shared “practice plan” that would both allow and make accountable a dedicated period of the work week designated to academic activity. This promotes excellence and ongoing QA of complex pregnancy care, career satisfaction for our MFM junior staff, and strengthened research collaborations across the GTA.
- The natural synergy between MFM community recruiting and SOON goals.
Next steps will include a follow-up meeting of the TAHSN site chiefs/MFM division heads and chair to discuss formalizing these processes.
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