Program chief resident

Role description

The program chief resident represents both core (first- and second-year) and enhanced skills (third-year) residents, facilitates communication between faculty members and residents, and acts as a support to the site chiefs and enhanced skills chief resident. He or she encourages a collaboration and development of ideas across the sites and represents residents for various committees (Table 1). The program chief has regular monthly “chief chat” meetings with the program director, site chiefs, and resident leaders from other organizations (eg, Professional Association of Residents of Ontario, College of Family Physicians of Canada, and Ontario College of Family Physicians) to discuss any concerns, difficulties, and successes, as well as to plan for resident-led initiatives such as resident retreats. The program chief resident, often along with site chief residents, also collects formal program feedback from residents before any program-wide academic days. Given the program chief’s leadership role, he or she is also often informally approached by colleague residents at all of the sites with program feedback, again allowing for a program-wide perspective.

The program chief is also responsible for maintaining a relationship with the Queen’s Undergraduate Student Family Medicine Interest Group, acting as the key point of contact for the group. The program chief ensures that there is resident representation at family medicine interest group events, encouraging an ongoing positive relationship with residents. Having a program-wide perspective allows the program chief to ensure that medical students are included in any program events and that they are enjoying their experiences at all of our distributed sites.

Another key duty of the program chief is to send out a monthly, program-wide newsletter to all residents; the newsletter includes reminders about important dates and events, and is accompanied by flyers received from administration during the past month (ie, condensing information from multiple e-mails into 1 e-mail received monthly). This newsletter allows for a better sense of community and allows residents from all sites to be aware of social events and study groups that are taking place at the various sites.

Benefits of the role

The most obvious benefit of the role is the program chief’s opportunity to develop leadership skills and determine if a continued role in medical education is of interest to him or her. Gaining an appreciation for change management and curriculum development is also a key educational aspect of the position. Like other chief resident roles, the program chief position provides an opportunity to balance clinical and educational duties, and to build networks and working relationships with faculty leaders. At Queen’s University, the program chief works very closely with the program director—a relationship that provides the program chief a unique opportunity to receive mentorship and have a role model.

The program chief also helps maintain that program-wide perspective for curricular developments and acts as a liaison when sitting on the several committees (Table 1). Acting as a liaison between faculty members and residents involves working toward a thorough understanding of the program’s overall goals and objectives, and creates an increased awareness of and commitment to improving the program’s vision and challenges.

The unified role allows the program chief to field questions from interested learners about the training available at each of the distributed sites. This makes the program chief an articulate, informative, and thoughtful face representing the program, which is of value at provincial and national meetings and during recruitment drives. This is especially apparent during the Canadian Resident Matching Service process, as the program chief provides a unified voice for all sites to interested younger learners.

The program chief is also a point of contact for residents with difficult questions and who might feel uncomfortable approaching their own colleagues or site chief resident.

From the perspective of the program director, the program chief role—which adds the point of view of a current resident who has a deep understanding of the program to various program issues and initiatives—is invaluable. The time spent mentoring is enjoyable given the engagement and enthusiasm of the program chiefs, and is more than compensated for. The program chief–driven initiatives introduced over the years have been novel and very valuable additions to the program.

Potential challenges

As the role requires providing input on multiple faculty-driven committees, the program chief should be someone who excels clinically, as absence from clinical duties is not infrequent. The time commitment for the program chief is variable depending on initiatives the program chief chooses to develop or be involved with, but the role does require a minimum of 5 to 10 hours a week. This time commitment can increase considerably with busier times like during Canadian Resident Matching Service interviews. It is important to remember that clinical training is always the priority, and this is made very transparent from the start of the role and is explained in the job description. The program chief can always delegate another resident leader to attend meetings on his or her behalf. So far, we have yet to encounter a program chief or site chief who has struggled clinically owing to chief resident commitments, as shown by the 100% pass rate of program and site chiefs on the Certification Examination in Family Medicine.

Another potential challenge is clearly defining the role of the program chief to ensure that it is distinguished from the role of the site chief, especially at the program chief’s home site. As the program chief is most visible at his or her home site, ensuring residents and faculty know which chief to contact regarding certain issues will take time. From our experience and the findings in the literature, having well defined job descriptions is highly recommended.^2–4

For some chief residents, the change in mindset from being an advocate for colleagues to being the liaison between residents and the program can be challenging. It can also be difficult when contentious issues are being resolved, as the program chief navigates between this role and being a friend and colleague to the other residents. This switch in mindset and potential tension is discussed early on during role orientation.