As far as new neighbours go, the brand new Queen's School of Medicine across the street from KGH is a winner. Not only is the $77-million building a pleasing mix of glass and limestone to gaze upon, but what's happening on the inside is also exciting for KGH.
The new school was custom built to support a new type of student learning. The new curriculum is more patient-focused and competency-based. It's built around the idea that students should be spending less time taking notes and listening to lectures, and more time collaborating, problem solving and practising.
“We are changing the paradigm from ‘see one, do one, teach one' to ‘see one, practice 1,000 times, then do one,' ” says Richard Reznick, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen's.
And there is plenty of practice space to take advantage of in the new school. Most of the second floor is dedicated to a large surgical skills and simulation laboratory – equipped with high-tech mannequins, observation rooms and recording facilities to help students perfect their techniques.
On the floor below, students will be taught how to interview patients while being guided by instructors in a 20-room clinical education centre.
A shiny new Anatomy Learning Centre and Museum is also part of the learning environment. It's on the third floor, while the fourth is home to some basic science laboratories for pharmacology/physiology, microbiology and biochemistry.
Also of note is the fact that the building only has two administrative offices. This freed up plenty of space to create 28 small meeting rooms.
Students can use them to work on small projects and learn in an intimate space. For larger gatherings, the new school has two 125-seat lecture halls with specially designed chairs so students can swing around and work with the people sitting behind them.
“Our students will be spending more time working together to solve clinical problems,” says Reznick. “Our faculty's overarching goal is not to train doctors as good as us, but to make doctors who are going to be better than us.”
KGH Chief of Staff Dr. David Zelt says this is all good news for our hospital.
“To have the next generation of medical students being educated in such leading school is a real positive for us,” says Zelt. “Not only are they learning in a cutting-edge facility, but they are also being taught in new ways to put the patient first and to collaborate with each other, which supports what KGH is doing as part of our strategy.”
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