Delivering undergraduate medical education on rural and remote practice: Commentary and preliminary findings
Mariam Issa, University of Toronto
Kyung Young Kim, University of Toronto
Roxanne Wright, University of Toronto
Laila Premji, University of Toronto
Fok-Han Leung, University of Toronto

Previous studies on rural medical education have identified three factors associated with medical students’ entry into rural medical practice to overcome physician shortage in rural and remote areas: rural upbringing, rural clinical training during undergraduate medical education, and targetedrural training at the postgraduate level. Despite these findings, however, delivering early andsustained exposure to rural medicine has become even more challenging in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and cancellation of in-person shadowing opportunities. To address this challenge, the use of videoconferencing technology to conduct virtual interviews is explored to provide medical students with the opportunity to learn about how healthcare is delivered in rural settings, skills and attitudes needed to practice rurally, and realities of living in these regions. Preliminary findings revealed that the virtual interview had little effect on students’ interest in practicing or training in rural or remote communities, but many agreed they enjoyed the learning opportunity.

Bringing experience-based education together at our institutions: A focus on distinct outcomes, shared attributes and a coherent narrative
Andrea Sator, Simon Fraser University
Nancy Johnston, Simon Fraser University

Institutions seek to meet demands for more work-integrated learning (WIL) and experience-based education (EE) options yet face confusion regarding “what” and “how much” they already offer. Offerings are de-centralized and not reported as discrete models. CEWIL provides some guidelines on WIL, however, many institutions need to determine what is ‘in their collective EE tent.’ The challenge of defining and determining how best to promote, support, monitor and report on this is daunting and sometimes divisive (Johnston & Sator, 2017). Building on existing quality frameworks, this chapter proposes a Purpose and Outcomes Driven approach (POD) that enables institutions to develop coherent narratives and shared understandings regarding their offerings in meaningful ways. The POD framework focuses on sharedquality attributes and unique outcomes across model types, helping link each model’s purpose to student, institutional, and other stakeholders’ outcomes and providing the ability to report on outcomes by their shared purpose.

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