Sioux Lookout Zone Family Physicians

We believe being involved as educators reveals important dimensions of our unique practice. Education is a key component in our group's Mission and Value Statements. We place a high priority in our practice on teaching and learning and we are happy to share the experience of northern medicine and northern culture with others. We aim to foster a practice that promotes learning in all its dimensions from informal consultations to evidence-based learning sessions.

We support each other and our colleagues in ongoing professional development: holding monthly problem-based small group learning sessions; engaging northern nurses in weekly telemedicine rounds; and sponsoring specialist seminars on relevant topics. We also share interesting and/or critical care cases by monthly email distributions called Challenging Medicine.During our monthly visits north, we often conduct in-services for the nurses and local health workers in the communities.

We hold frequent lunch rounds in the hospital where physicians or learners share their current research or learning. We hold two-day retreats twice a year to take stock of our goals and to discuss and reassess our direction as a group. At these retreats we hold popular clinical pearls sessions, marrying new clinical literature with on the ground experience from our practice.

We mentor numerous learners each year including Medical Students, Family Practice Residents and Pediatric Residents. We appreciate the opportunity learners give us to engage our reciprocal learning. In 2007-08 we partnered with the new Northern Ontario School of Medicine and shared the comprehensive teaching of four Clinical Clerks with the Sioux Lookout town physicians for 8 months. The NOSM clerks enjoyed a unique learning experience consisting of 4 months of remote medicine with our group and 4 months of rural medicine with the town practice.

Students who are interested in First Nations medicine in remote communities are invited to apply to our practice via the NOSM program - please specify interest in the Sioux Lookout Zone.