Examining collegiality in Saskatchewan - Saskatchewan Medical ...

FEATURE
and appreciate each other’s challenges
– is essential to having collegial relationships
and delivering high-quality
patient care. That compassion can help
bridge some of the divides that permeate
the provincial health care community:
urban vs. rural, GP vs. specialist,
or physician vs. nurse, for example.
Dr. Mary Kinloch, a fifth-year pathology
resident in Saskatoon and president
of the Professional Association
of Internes and Residents of Saskatchewan,
agrees. “I feel that the rotating
first year that residents do is crucial for
developing collegiality,” she says. “It
is the equivalent of walking a mile in
someone else’s shoes. Then, when you
are being asked for something from
another department, you have a better
understanding of why they need it and
you can be more supportive.”
Practising compassion also results in
a shared responsibility for patients, a
sense of caring of ‘our’ patient rather
than ‘your’ patient, even if that patient
is coming from a different community
or medical specialty.
6 Spring 2011 SMA News Digest
Obviously, compassion for your colleagues
is easier to achieve where there
is a commitment to respectful and thorough
communication. “How you feel
and how you communicate are two different
things,” says Dr. Vuksic. “When
two physicians aren’t communicating
properly, patient care suffers.” Even if
you disagree with your colleagues or
are feeling stressed or exhausted, basic
standards of respectful communication
must be used.
Dr. Doig recalls the ease of communication
in the past, when specialists,
family physicians, nurses and others
on the health care team had much
more face time with each other. “We
had corridor consultations, general
kibitzing,” he says, smiling. The result,
however, was a true sense of “taking
care of our patients.”
Dr. Kinloch says she experiences interdisciplinary
collegiality all the time,
in her case most often with radiologists
and surgeons: “Correct diagnoses
and proper management hinge on being
able to communicate and support
colleagues.” She admits, though, that
family physicians are at a bit of a disadvantage
just by proximity. “It would be
nice to engage family physicians more
with some of the same interdisciplinary
rounds that we [in-hospital specialists]
do to enhance our service to our
patients,” she says.
Looking to the future
MD Lounge is a publication produced
by the Canadian Medical Association,
in partnership with The College of Family
Physicians of Canada and The Royal
College of Physicians and Surgeons of
Canada. Its purpose is to provide Canadian
physicians with information and
advice from leading experts and help
strengthen collegial relations between
family physicians and other specialists.
From the November 2010 issue: “In the
many interviews conducted for MD
Lounge in our exploration of intraprofessionalism
in Canada, physician after
physician mentioned that the loss of direct
interaction between general practi-