Mala Joneja has earned an inaugural fellowship from a provincial medical organization for her program aimed at exposing resident physicians to the concept of compassionate, patient-centred care.
“I applied for an Associated Medical Services (AMS) Phoenix fellowship because the opportunity was very much in line with what I value in medical education, namely the balance between technical expertise and human compassion,” says Dr. Joneja, Associate Program Director of the Core Internal Medicine training program in the Department of Medicine at Queen’s University.
Dr. Joneja, who also serves as the Program Director for the Rheumatology residency program, is interested in improving the educational activities for resident physicians. In particular, she will examine the impact the ‘hidden curriculum’ has on resident physicians as they engage with the medical education system and the teaching hospital hierarchy.
Her program will ask resident physicians to examine their experiences and reflect on a critical incident in their day-to-day work where patient-centred care was lacking. The resident physicians will share their experiences with their peers, and Dr. Joneja intends to collect the submissions for future resident physician training.
Dr. Joneja has observed patients and their families advocating for more compassionate physicians in recent years, and notes that many hospitals have put patient-centred care at the top of their agenda. She’s encouraged to see the trend spread to medical education through the support of groups such as the AMS Phoenix Project. As one of seven fellows, she looks forward to sharing her ideas with likeminded medical educators and drawing on the support network created by the AMS Phoenix Project.
More information about the AMS Phoenix Fellowship
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Release source: Queen’s University News Centre
Photo caption: Queen’s resident physicians will have the opportunity to examine and reflect on a critical incident in their day-to-day work where patient-centred care was lacking.
