Development and pilot testing the Family Conference Rating Scale: A tool aimed to assess interprofessional patient-centred communication and collaboration competencies.

There is a paucity of evidence-based literature on the essential communication and collaboration skills to guide health care teams in conducting and assessing their performance in the Family Conference (FC). The authors developed and collected validity evidence for a rating scale of team FC performance, the Family Conference Rating Scale (FCRS). In phase 1, essential FC communication and collaboration skills were identified through a review of existing communication tools and literature on team functioning; a draft 34-item scale was developed.

A national clinician-educator program: a model of an effective community of practice.

Background: The increasing complexity of medical training often requires faculty members with educational expertise to address issues of curriculum design, instructional methods, assessment, program evaluation, faculty development, and educational scholarship, among others.

Discussion: In 2007, The Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada responded to this need by establishing the first national clinician-educator program. We define a clinician-educator and describe the development of the program.

From cure to care: assessing the ethical and professional learning needs of medical learners in a care-based facility.

The purpose of this study was to assess the ethical and professional learning needs of medical trainees on clinical placements at a care-based facility, as they shifted from acute care to care-based philosophy. Using qualitative data analysis and grounded theory techniques, 12 medical learners and five clinical supervisors were interviewed. Five themes emerged as learning needs: the holistic approach to care, withdrawal of treatment and withholding investigations, the collaborative team model, violations to patient autonomy, Do Not Resuscitate and advance directives issues.