News
Understanding how health care is delivered in Canada is an essential step for international medical graduates (IMGs) and other learners preparing to practise medicine. To help candidates navigate this landscape, the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) has developed six new curated reference guides, called resource maps, with each putting a spotlight on a key topic in Canadian medical practice. Designed as structured orientation materials to build context, these free guides cover subjects like mental health, cultural safety, patient-centered communication, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ health, among other important topics. Each resource map highlights credible, Canada-focused learning materials, including articles, videos, websites, and other tools, to help learners begin exploring important subjects in a manageable way.
“We know how overwhelming it can feel when you are preparing for an assessment,” says Dr. Marieke Kalkhove, an assessment content developer with the MCC, who helped to design the resource maps. She says that it made sense to direct candidates to the many high-quality, reputable resources being created and maintained by groups and organizations across the country who are the subject matter experts on these topics. But she acknowledges that before the resource maps, the MCC’s ‘free resources’ page, with its more than 90 links to content, could be challenging to navigate. “Candidates would go to the page planning to prepare for an assessment, but then sometimes felt overwhelmed because they didn’t know where to start,” Dr. Kalkhove explains.
That is where the idea of mapping out the resources was born. Curated by a working group of physician subject matter experts, the resource maps are designed to help those preparing to both take MCC exams and participate in Practice-Ready Assessment (PRA) programs better understand the subjects they will encounter while practising medicine in Canada. “We always encourage people to keep learning, but it was really about saying: this is a good place to start,” Dr. Kalkhove says of the resource maps. “These are challenges that you might end up facing in your practice in Canada.”
The topics for the resource maps came about after meetings with physicians and assessors who were familiar with the MCC’s exams and who could also identify gaps in knowledge they were seeing with candidates who were entering PRA programs. “Candidates still needed to learn about working within the Canadian health care system, about things like waiting lists and the fact that insurance might not cover everything,” Dr. Kalkhove explains, stressing that these free reference guides are designed to build context for practising in Canada, as opposed to instilling medical knowledge. “These are highlighting topics that are specific to a Canadian context and that international medical graduates might not be aware of.”
While there are currently six resource maps available in both English and French, Dr. Kalkhove says she hopes there will be more to come. In the meantime, the MCC team plans to gather feedback directly from candidates on their effectiveness; there is a survey for learners to complete about their experience. She also stresses the fact that these tools are intended as a place to start on a particular topic, encouraging continuous learning. “Looking at these maps should give candidates a good basis of understanding on a topic,” says Dr. Kalkhove, “but that isn’t where it ends. We hope learners will get a good sense of where they can go next.”
The MCC wishes to recognize the structurally marginalized groups and the shared pool of subject matter experts, whose dedication ensures the maintenance of high-quality candidate reference materials.
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