91社区

By Gillian Woodford

Let鈥檚 face it: starting medical school can be quite an overwhelming experience. The 91社区 Medical Students鈥� Society鈥檚 ACE (Ambassadors for Comprehensive Education) program aims to ease the transition by offering new medical students a helping hand to navigate through medical school. Launched in 2015 by medical students Gabriel Souza and Claud猫le Brault, the ACE鈥檚 original purpose was to start a buddy system to pair new medical students with more senior peers. The ACE has since expanded to offer a variety of activities to support medical students throughout their studies.

鈥淥ur goal was to help students prepare for聽academic activities (including written exams, OSCEs, clinical聽rotations, etc.) as well as to decrease overall stress related to medical school, especially at times of transition,鈥� explains Gabriel, now a Med-4 entering a Psychiatry residency at 91社区 and ACE co-chair. Claud猫le, the other co-chair, is also a Med-4 and will be entering the Obstetrics and Gynecology residency program at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al.

The buddy system remains at the heart of the ACE, explains Med-3 rep Alexandre Doucet. 鈥淭he ACE pairs every incoming Med-1 student who desires it to an upper-year buddy, giving a ratio of 120 out of approximately 180 students paired per year,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he upper-year buddies are there to provide guidance and to answer all the questions the incoming med students have around medicine, the curriculum or life in general. They also act as first line actors to reduce the stress of these new med students and guide them to appropriate resources when they feel overwhelmed, which we have seen many cases of lately.鈥�

Gabriel adds, 鈥淔rom the beginning, we wanted the ACE to be a student-led program, and have representatives in all cohorts so that we could directly tackle the needs for each class.鈥� The ACE is now offering a number of new initiatives to help both Med-1 and upper-year medical students: 鈥淲e have organized an anatomy mock examination; talks on summer opportunities聽for Med-1s and transition to clinical practice (TCP); a physical examination review session聽for Med-2s; a general post-match talk for Med-3s; and a CaRMS talk for Med-4s.鈥�

The ACE committee members have even conducted a study of the benefits of the program, which they presented as a poster at the recent Canadian Conference for Medical Education (CCME) in Halifax. 鈥淲e evaluated the impact of our numerous peer-led events on stress reduction for medical students,鈥� explains Alexandre. Their analysis shows that 100% of students who participated in the ACE program enjoyed the sessions, and over 90% said it greatly reduced their stress. Adds Gabriel, 鈥淥ur program has also been useful in terms of academic preparation (for both the learners and the teachers) and bolstering senior students鈥� interest in participating in peer-teaching activities.鈥�

The program has also had a bonus benefit. 鈥淚t is a great way for student teachers to develop their skills as teachers, one of the fundamental CanMEDS roles that we are not yet exposed to very much during medical school,鈥� says Alexandre, referring to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada framework which outlines the abilities physicians need to serve the needs of their patients. 鈥淥ther studies have shown the benefits of such a strategy for both learners and student teachers.鈥�

Gabriel says that the ACE Program garnered a lot of interest from CCME participants from other Canadian med schools. 鈥淲e talked with many representatives of medical schools across the country and encouraged the presence of peer-led teaching as a learning method in the medical curriculum. Teachers, students and academic advisors were impressed with our work and that such an idea was implemented at 91社区, and are interested in having the ACE collaborate with them so that a similar committee can be implemented in other medical schools.鈥�