Curriculum Design 
The Patient as Teacher program uses a patient-centred approach to undergraduate surgical education that will support the development of important CanMEDS roles and competencies, integrate well with the 3rd year portfolio course at the University of Toronto, and will set students up for better learning during Ethics, Morbidity, and Mortality Rounds (Ethics M&Ms) that occur during residency.
The Patient as Teacher program is integrated into the 3rd year surgical clerkship for undergraduate medical students at the University of Toronto. The program consists of 3 interactive workshops (of 60-75 minutes each) and a reflection piece. Students’ performance will not be assessed but they will receive a grade of complete or incomplete for their participation.
Workshops 1 and 2 are patient-driven sessions led by 2 cancer survivors who become the valuable teachers to medical students. In these sessions that are facilitated by a trained facilitator in health care, patient teachers will discuss how illness has impacted their lives and reflect on their experiences with the health care system. Students will have the chance to engage in dialogue with patient teachers and ask questions. In doing so, students will be able to expand their understanding of how illness impacts patients and their families through engaging with patients and learning from their personal stories.
Workshop 3 is a reflection session facilitated by a clinical educator and faculty member that will provide a safe space for students to critically reflect on personal experiences and assumptions, on the effects of surgery and chronic illness, and on the patient-surgeon relationship. After participating in the first two workshops, students will produce a creative reflection piece in which they juxtapose what they learned from the first two workshops with an event or experience during their surgery clerkship. The reflection piece will form the basis for the group discussion during this last workshop.
