Behavioural Medicine and Resident Wellness

  • Demonstrate proficient assessment and management of patients using the patient-centred method.
  • Demonstrate proficient active listening, verbal and non-verbal skills, expression of empathy, unconditional positive regard and genuineness.
  • Demonstrate proficiency in establishing a strong doctor-patient relationship and therapeutic alliance.
  • Recognize how past personal and professional experiences (including Family of Origin) impact the Doctor-Patient relationship.
  • Evaluate the impact of his or her own personal feelings on the therapeutic alliance
  • Recognize signs and symptoms of burnout in one’s self and colleagues.
  • List resources to promote and support physician health.
  • Use reflective practice as a means of promoting personal and patient care.
  • Recognize the importance of wellness and resiliency in personal and patient care.
  • Demonstrate awareness that the physician is perceived in community as a role model for healthy lifestyle/living.
  • Demonstrate appropriate personal and professional boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship.
  • Outline a patient’s problems with a realistic and longitudinal view, while balancing the priorities of the patient and physician.
  • Devise a management plan that the patient agrees to and can fulfil and provide appropriate follow up for mental health and lifestyle change problems.
  • Demonstrate the confidence and skills to manage difficult (emotionally intense) interactions.
  • Address all aspects of a person including: physical health, emotional health, life stage and individual development (normative developmental stages), sexuality, spirituality, health beliefs, culture/ethnicity, relationships, work, school, household, money/finances, leisure time.
  • Demonstrate sensitivity to the power differential between doctor and patient and understand the potential for the abuse of that power.
  • Differentiate between normal range of experiences and common mental health disorders (normal vs. atypical grief, mood symptoms vs. mood disorders, age-related cognitive decline and dementia etc.) and manage appropriately.
  • Discuss the effects of abuse, neglect, and psychological/emotional/physical trauma on future health.
  • Recognize the role of advocacy in patient and physician health.