Learning Together During Residency
Residency is about more than acquiring clinical knowledge. It’s also about learning how to think through complex cases, reflect on your decisions, and learn from the experiences of others.
That’s where our Residency Practice-Based Learning Program (PBLP) fits in.
Learning through real clinical cases
Rather than sitting through another lecture, residents work through evidence-based clinical cases together in small groups. The discussion is interactive: you can share experiences from practice, explore different approaches, look up guidelines and resources, and learn from the perspectives of your peers.
As Residency PBLP Director Dr. Peter Tzakas explains, sometimes the best sessions are the ones where the group doesn’t get through everything planned:
“You might go in thinking, ‘Okay, we’ll get through three modules in four hours,’ and then you only get through two, but that’s usually a good thing. It means the conversation is actually going somewhere, directed by the learners to fit their learning needs.”
Connecting learning to practice
Residency PBLP is designed to complement both residency training and day-to-day clinical experience. Modules address practical primary care topics and have been mapped to College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) exam topics.
Residents can also encounter additional learning tools, including SAMP-style questions, that help connect module content with preparation for certification examinations and independent practice.
Building the habit of reflection
An important part of PBLP is reflecting on what you have learned and considering whether it could change something in your practice.
The Practice Reflection Tool helps residents identify learning that is relevant to their own clinical work and think about how they might apply it. It’s a skill that extends well beyond residency and supports lifelong professional development.
Shaped with residents, not just for residents
Residents also have a voice in how Residency PBLP continues to evolve. FMPE has established a Resident Advisory Committee and includes resident representation at the Board level, helping ensure that resident experiences and perspectives inform the future of the program.
Today, Residency PBLP reaches thousands of residents at sites across Canada, creating opportunities to learn with colleagues while developing habits that can continue throughout a career in family medicine.
At its heart, PBLP is simple: discuss real cases, learn from one another, reflect on your practice, and take what you learn back to patient care.