The CPD Office’s Lifelong learning Philosophy

Lifelong learning is an essential part of professional practice for physicians and other regulated health professionals. As healthcare continues to evolve through new evidence, emerging technologies, changing patient needs, and advances in clinical practice, ongoing learning enables healthcare professionals to adapt to changing practice environments, advance their careers, continually enhance the quality of care they provide, and meet the evolving needs of the patients and communities they serve. This commitment is particularly important for healthcare professionals working in northern, rural, and remote communities, where unique practice environments, geographic considerations, evolving scopes of practice, and community-specific health needs require ongoing opportunities for professional growth, connection, and support. More than attending courses or earning continuing education credits, lifelong learning represents an ongoing commitment to reflection, growth, and the continuous application of knowledge, skills, and experience throughout every stage of a professional career.

Today’s approach to lifelong learning extends well beyond traditional continuing education. It encompasses a broad range of opportunities that support clinical excellence, professional growth, leadership development, and socially accountable and community-responsive healthcare. These opportunities include competency-based learning, quality improvement, reflective practice, interprofessional education, faculty and leadership development, digital learning, educational scholarship, physician wellness, and initiatives that advance equity, diversity, inclusion, Indigenous health, and community priorities. Whether you are looking to strengthen your clinical expertise, develop new leadership or teaching skills, pursue scholarly interests, address practice-based learning needs, or access resources that support your professional journey, our office is committed to helping you achieve your lifelong learning goals. This page brings together learning opportunities developed by our team, along with carefully selected resources from trusted partners, to support healthcare professionals throughout every stage of their careers and across diverse practice settings.

Our Approach to Lifelong Learning and supporting continuous professional growth and practice improvement.

Learn – Building knowledge, skills, and confidence
Reflect – Identifying learning needs and opportunities for improvement
Connect – Engaging with colleagues, mentors, and communities of practice
Improve – Applying learning to enhance practice and patient care

Explore

Discover opportunities to expand your knowledge, explore emerging topics, and stay current with advances in healthcare.

Examples:

• Accredited CPD conferences and workshops
  • Visit the NOSM U CPD Website for upcoming CPD Events
• Grand rounds
  • Visit the NOSM U Grand Rounds Program to see upcoming Grand Rounds being shared virtually by LEGs across northern Ontario
• Online learning resources
  • Equity Diversity Inclusion and Accessibility Asynchronous Activities:
    • Hearing Our Voices: Indigenous Cultural Safety Training
    • Stand Up: Understanding and Combatting Microaggressions
  • The Active Offer of French Language Health Services
  • Self-Compassion for Healthcare Professionals

• Clinical updates
  • Visit the Ontario Health Clinical and Quality Standards
  • Visit the CMAJ Guidelines: Canadian Medical Association Journal
  • Visit the Centre for Effective Practice for clinical tools and practice management supports
  • Visit the CMA Joule CPG Infobase for a directory of evidence-based guidelines and Choosing Wisely Canada recommendations
  • You may also want to visit the National Specialty Society that most closely aligns with your area of interest (i.e. Hypertension Canada, or the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada)

Develop

Build skills that support professional growth, leadership, teaching, and collaboration.

Examples:

• Faculty development

• • Visit the CPD Learning HUB and explore asynchronous activities to support you in your role as a NOSM U faculty member or preceptor:
    • Clinician Teacher Certificate Course (Asynchronous modules paired with in-person and virtual workshops)
    • Short Asynchronous (free) modules for Effective Teachers and Learners:
      • Designing Multiple Choice Questions
      • Promoting a culture of professionalism
      • Onboarding International Medical Graduates
      • Introduction to Small Group Facilitation
      • Introduction to Competence by Design
    • Short Asynchronous (free) modules on EDIA topics:
      • Mitigating Bias During Residency Selection
      • Mitigating Bias During the Admissions Process
    • Faculty and Preceptor Development Tips Sheets and Resources

• Teaching Tips: SNAPPS
• Teaching Tips: Ask-Tell-Ask
• Teaching Tips: One-Minute Preceptor
• Additional Learning Opportunities for Elective or Core Learners
• Teaching Elective or Core Learners in Busy Clinical Practice
• Teaching Professionalism: Four Key Questions
• Best Practices for Small Group Facilitation: Managing Technology
• Learner’s Perspective: Receiving & Responding to Feedback with Ask-Tell-Ask
• Learner’s Perspective: Receiving & Responding to Feedback
• Tips for Conducting Virtual Interviews

• • • Career Progression Resources

• Faculty Affairs Promotion Guide
• Faculty Affairs Promotion Information

• • • Evaluation and Assessment Tips Sheets:
      • Getting Better Feedback & Evaluations in Education Sessions
      • Getting Better Program Evaluations

Reflect and Improve

Translate learning into meaningful improvements in practice and patient care.

Examples:

• Practice improvement activities
  • Visit the CFPC’s Practice Improvement Initiative
• Quality improvement initiatives
  • Visit the CFPC’s Guide to Integrating QI into residency programs.
• Self-assessment resources
  • In your early years of practice, visit the CPD Office’s Personal Learning Plan Tool, to plan your learning for the next few years and tailor it to your practice interests. (Coming soon)
  • Visit the CFPC’s Personal Learning Plan which will help you identify your personal needs, identify opportunities for practice improvement, and help you with setting your CPD goals at any stage of practice.
• Reflective learning tools
  • Visit the CFPC’s Link Learning Exercises to see how casual conversations or day-to-day activities can be transformed to reflective learning activities related to your practice, research, Administration, Assessment, or Teaching

Connect and Collaborate

Engage with peers, communities, and partners to support shared learning.

Examples:

• Communities of practice
  • Visit the CPD Office’s Upcoming events to see workshops, conferences and courses that have intentionally built in the development of a community of practice through networking or post-event group session, or to see events that address your personal earning goals, which also offering informal opportunities to network and develop communities of practice.
• Interprofessional learning
  • Healthcare is delivered differently in northern Ontario, with closer collaboration between physicians in different specialty areas, and between physicians and other health professionals. Because of this diversity, CPD planning committees most often include diverse representation of health professionals, reflective of the target audience for the education, and in recognition of the teams that work together to optimize care for patients in rural communities. Explore the offerings – take a look at the planning committee membership to see which health professionals have had input, and then see if the agenda speaks to your interprofessional interests.
• Regional/northern learning networks
  • Similar to the interprofessional approach, most of the CPD activities offered through the CPD Office is planned with geographic representation to ensure the perspectives and needs of different regions in northern Ontario, and of urban, rural and remote perspectives are integrated into the planning. Explore the upcoming events, and the NOSM U Rounds to see education that is a true network of grand rounds developed across northern ON, with a sharing of expertise and resources about topics relevant from one community to another. This is an excellent opportunity to see where you’re community needs overlap with a neighboring community, or of a distant community, and it may be an opportunity to build relationships and communities of practice that not only support community-informed clinical topics, but may support you or a colleague who may have a sense of isolation in a more remote community.