Department of Supportive Care

Overview

Eligibility Requirements:
Any learner registered in a Canadian UGME training program. For non-Canadian electives, please contact education coordinator.

Duration:
We usually ask that elective medical students apply for at least a 2-week rotation.

Funding Requirements:
Not applicable.

Clinical Components:
Combination of clinics, inpatient consults and palliative care unit placements, with medical students usually being placed on the consult service.

Research Components:
Not applicable.

Education/Teaching Components:
Learners will be able to participate in our core palliative care teaching sessions, which cover a breadth of different topics. There will also be journal club presentations that learners can participate in.

Various education activities and rounds are offered:

• Department of Supportive Care Grand Rounds
• Pain & Symptom Management Rounds

Overview

Eligibility Requirements:
Any learner registered in a Canadian UGME training program. For non-Canadian electives, please contact education coordinator.

Duration:
4-week rotation on the inpatient palliative care consult service.

Funding Requirements:
Not applicable.

Clinical Components:

• The palliative care team works alongside primary teams in the hospital to provide expert symptom management, palliative planning, navigation of goals of care, and end of life management to those with serious illness.
• The program serves patients and families living with a diversity of advanced illnesses, encompassing both malignant and non-malignant diagnoses. Recognized worldwide, the Toronto General Hospital provides care to a multitude of medical and surgical patient populations, including highly subspecialized populations such as multi-organ transplants, and complex cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. We are affiliated with Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, one of the largest cancer centres in the world, and thus also collaborate to care for patients receiving quaternary cancer care.

Research Components:
Not applicable.

Education/Teaching Components:

• Once a week - Tuesday afternoons through Temmy Latner
• Communication teaching - no specified date/time

Various education activities and rounds are offered:

• Department of Supportive Care Grand Rounds
• Pain & Symptom Management Rounds

Overview

Eligibility Requirements:
Any learner registered in a Canadian UGME training program. For non-Canadian electives, please contact education coordinator.

Duration:
The Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) Palliative Care Clinical Rotation includes 3 weeks on the TWH Consult Service and 1 week at Kensington Hospice.

Funding Requirements:
Not applicable.

Clinical Components:
Our program serves patients and their families living with both malignant and non-malignant serious illness with particular emphasis on consultation to internal medicine, neurology/stroke and neurosurgical services, providing care in the following ways:

• Inpatient consult service
• Most Responsible Physician (MRP) beds
• Outpatient neurology clinic

Our team provides expert symptom management, palliative planning, navigation of goals of care, and end of life management. The most common referring diagnoses are: dementia, stroke, brain cancer and frailty with chronic end-organ disease or cancer.

The Kensington Hospice is a 10-bed (expanding to 19 beds in 2022) residential hospice that cares for patients with serious illness and their families who are in their last 3 months of life. The hospice provides physical, emotional, social and spiritual support for patients and their loved ones in a home-like setting. You will provide MRP care while working alongside an interprofessional team. Opportunities to follow patients from TWH into Kensington Hospice exist.

Research Components:
Not applicable.

Education/Teaching Components:

• Once a week - Tuesday afternoons through Temmy Latner
• Communication teaching - no specified date/time

Various education activities and rounds are offered:

• Department of Supportive Care Grand Rounds
• Pain & Symptom Management Rounds

Overview

Eligibility Requirements:
CC3 doing core psychiatry clerkship rotations.

Duration:
3 weeks - Psychosocial Oncology.

Funding Requirements:
Not applicable.

Clinical Components:
The six-week Psychiatry course begins with centralized teaching sessions that occur during the first three days. The clinical experience takes place in a variety of settings including inpatient units, psychotherapy clinics, ambulatory clinics, consultation liaison teams, and emergency settings. Clerks can spend three of their six weeks of their rotation at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. An integral component of the course is interviewing patients and/or standardized patients with anxiety, mood, psychosis, cognitive, and substance disorders with focus on symptomatology, diagnosis, and basic treatment principles. All clerks will have exposure to psychiatric emergencies mostly by taking night and weekend on-call not exceeding one in five, until 11 p.m. Clinical experience with children and families take place during two half-days in a child psychiatry setting under the direct supervision of a child psychiatrist. Seminars are held weekly at each hospital site and include topics such as interviewing skills and dealing with challenging personality styles.

Research Components:
Not applicable.

Education/Teaching Components:
Various education activities and rounds are offered:

• Centre for Mental Health Evidence Based Mental Health Rounds
• Department of Supportive Care Grand Rounds
• PSO Clinical Case Conference
• Global Institute of Psychosocial, Palliative and End-of-Life Care (GIPPEC) Seminar

Website:

• Clerkship Courses - University of Toronto

Overview

Eligibility Requirements:
Any learner registered in a Canadian UGME training program. For non-Canadian electives, please contact education coordinator.

Duration:
2 to 4 weeks.

Funding Requirements:
Not applicable.

Clinical Components:
This experience includes an introduction to the role of psychiatry in oncology for inpatients and outpatients over age 18, covering all cancer types and disease stages. Students will learn about the psychiatric and psychosocial aspects of cancer for patients and families at diagnosis, during active treatment, in the event of recurrence, after completing treatment, through survivorship and during palliation and end-of-life care.

Research Components:
Not applicable.

Education/Teaching Components:
Students will have the opportunity to observe and perform psychiatric assessments with supervisors to aid in developing diagnostic and formulation skills, improving communication skills with medically ill patients, including at end of life.

Various education activities and rounds are offered:

• Centre for Mental Health Evidence Based Mental Health Rounds
• Department of Supportive Care Grand Rounds
• PSO Clinical Case Conference
• Global Institute of Psychosocial, Palliative and End-of-Life Care (GIPPEC) Seminar

Website:

• University of Toronto MD Electives