From July4^th – 8^th 2016, two professors from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine: Prof. Barbara Power and Prof. James Chan came to Shanghai to give a week’s training on PSD (Physician Skills Development) for Ottawa-Shanghai Joint School of Medicine (OSJSM) PSD tutors. More than 140 teachers attended the training.

Since its establishment, OSJSM has held many faculty development events on topics such as educational concepts, teaching methods, evaluation, etc., to ensure the delivery and quality of the curriculum since January 2015. This time the training focused on PSD which is an important part of the 4-year medical curriculum. It aims to train the students on some clinical skills and is similar to the Chinese domestic course of Diagnosis. But the PSD course is unique in its own way: the students are taught in small groups; it does not only include the common history taking, physical exam, but also communication skills which are not taught widespread in Chinese medical schools.

The faculty training includes communication skills, history taking, physical exam, group practice, evaluation and feedback. The delivery methods are various. Besides lectures that introduce the course, there are group practices. Each group of 5-6 teachers simulate the clinical teaching process by practicing on standardized patients. The training received very positive feedback from the teachers who said such kind of events is quite helpful to preparing the PSD course.

Moreover, Prof. Power and Prof. Chan also gave a training session to community teachers. OSJSM students will go into community health care centers to study and have internships in the future. Therefore, Prof. Power gave a brief introduction of this part, such as how to group the students, how to teach the students in communities, how to communicate with the patients, etc. The teachers also brought up some questions based on the differences between China and Canada.

One week’s training is short yet fruitful. The teachers gained a better understanding of the unique teaching mode and exam requirements of OSJSM, and had a hands-on practice by simulating in groups. After the training each teacher filled out the evaluation form of this PSD faculty development event. OSJSM will provide more resources and information to the teachers based on their feedback.