DFCM Annual Report 2017-2018

GLOBAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Dr. Kenneth Yakubu from
Nigeria shares his experiences
in the Toronto International
Program to Strengthen Family
Medicine and Primary Care
This year’s Toronto International Program ran from April 23rd –
May 4th 2018. The program addressed the foundations of effective
and quality family medicine and primary care through interactive,
learner-centred didactic sessions, group discussions, site visits, and
clinical observerships. Participants included seven family doctors
(two Ethiopian, three Japanese family physicians, one Kuwaiti and
one Syrian) and one primary care clinical manager from Georgia.
Below participant, Dr. Kenneth Yakuba from Nigeria, reflects on
his experiences in the program.
My attraction to family medicine started during my time as
a medical intern in Nigeria. I came to appreciate the family
doctor as a “Super-doc”. One able to solve multiple health
problems, and one with vast knowledge. I would often daydream
about how valuable I could be to my future patients; so
I enrolled in the residency training as soon as I got the chance
to do so.
I had high expectations and a lot of pleasant learning
experiences during my time as a trainee. I also had my
challenges and foremost was reconciling the principles of
family medicine with the reality of the practice I had come
to know. I was told that my training made me different from
the general practitioner who had no postgraduate family
medicine residency training; it made me more patient-centred
and evidence-based in my approach to undifferentiated care.
I thought so too and can identify with these; but, I was not
entirely convinced and I kept asking myself if I was really
different. As a trainee, I also struggled with long patient queues
and with a focus on quantity of health services, rather than
adding value to the patient-encounter.
I wanted more, more than just ensuring I had seen all the
patients on the waiting line, more than the “practice silos” of
vertical care. I wanted mentorship. I wanted someone to show
me that family medicine values were real, not a figment of my
imagination. I sought my definitions of a career in primary
care/family medicine and even though I eventually finished
the residency training and got a job as a family medicine
specialist/lecturer, I knew I was still searching for an alternate
experience.
In 2015, I heard about the Toronto International Program to
Strengthen Family Medicine (TIPs-FM) through AfriWon
Renaissance (the WONCA Africa Young Doctor Movement).
While AfriWon offered me a platform for interaction with a
valuable virtual community of young family doctors in Africa,
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