In each of PGY year 2‐4, residents are involved in teaching gross pathology to medical students through undergraduate labs. Each lab is a minimum of three hours and is run by one pathologist with one resident assisting. This usually involves small group and one‐on‐one interactions with the medical students.
The University of Ottawa medical students have registered a Pathology Interest Group (PIG), which has meetings at least once a month. At these, residents deliver 30 minute‐1 hour lectures with a clinicopathological focus. Over the year, the topics cover most body systems, matching the medical student curriculum.
Every Monday, at their Academic Full Day, all residents bring interesting and classic cases that they have seen over the preceding week for a 1‐1.5 hour group teaching session. Here, residents show their cases on a projected screen to point out the histologic features of the case, followed by a brief summary of the etiology, prognosis, etc. Staff pathologists have also begun contributing their own cases to this session to broaden what is seen.
Academic days are split up so that roughly half of the teaching is done by staff and half is done by residents. The residents prepare gross rounds, autopsy rounds, journal clubs and other talks. Each resident gives between 3 and 6 talks per year.
Although the staff physicians in the pathology department do a significant amount of medical student teaching, the majority of the medical students’ time is spent in the resident room. Here, there is both informal and formal teaching throughout the day.
Some of the best teaching that is received by junior residents is from the senior residents. The program has a double headed microscope in the resident room so that the junior and senior residents can sit down together for focused 1 on 1 teaching. These informal sessions happen daily throughout the year.
