Dr. Anne Sorensen, Meds’93, is a family doctor practicing in Oshawa and Queen’s Associate Professor who participated as a preceptor and mentor in the inaugural year of . Her mentee, first-year student Mina Jordanides, already a Queen’s alumna, BHSc’23, spent 70 hours over 28 weeks shadowing Dr. Sorensen at her practice. We asked them both to share their thoughts on this unique training experience.
Mentoring the family doctors of tomorrow
By Dr. Anne Sorensen
Photo credit: Eduardo Lima
“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.”
I was reminded of that famous quote when I became a preceptor for the new MD Family Medicine Program in Oshawa.
Mentoring a young and upcoming doctor was an exciting challenge and adventure. Seeing my job through fresh eyes also reminded me of everything I love about practising family medicine – from the rewarding patient relationships and community building to the multidisciplinary nature of what family doctors do on the job each and every day.
I had never previously worked with residents and or medical students. In the Fall of 2023, Mina came to my office for her observership as a first-year medical student from this innovative program. I was initially uncertain how I would cope with this additional responsibility or how my patients, who were not used to students in the office, would respond.
I was pleasantly surprised by the joy having a student in my office brought to my day. The majority of my patients were very supportive and excited to have her observe their encounters with me. Many patients appreciated listening to detailed explanations about their medical concerns as I was discussing their medical management with Mina. I believe this enhanced the care given and it did not detract from their medical interaction with me by having a student in attendance.
This opportunity also gave me an appreciation of the breadth of knowledge I do possess as a family doctor, which often gets lost in the wearying day-to-day tasks that can easily lead to burnout in my profession. I believe Mina came to appreciate the long-term relationships I have developed with many patients in my over 28 years in family practice. My hope is to transfer the joy of family practice to the next generation, and I believe Mina is excited to pursue her chosen career and very much enjoying developing her skills in family medicine training.
Having returned to Queen’s for my 25th and 30th class reunions, I had the occasion and opportunity to tour new facilities. In the School of Medicine building, I developed an appreciation for the progress in medical training since I graduated medical school in 1993. The virtual reality and technological advancements in training amazed me and my fellow classmates as we explored this beautiful and modern facility. We enjoyed the bright new building, touring the anatomy lab and the virtual reality training units, and more. Despite these technological advancements, it was apparent the focus for medical care remains patient centered. I believe having first-year medical students like Mina shadow doctors like me gives them an appreciation for this patient centered focus and the important position a family doctor maintains in the community caring for patients.
I believe Mina also appreciated the role family doctors play when diagnosis and management of a patient’s issue isn’t well defined or clear cut. This allows for demonstrating how to handle the unknown that plagues a family doctor’s ability to pinpoint an exact cause/diagnosis of current symptoms. Being able to care compassionately while developing alignment with patients for managing health goals and plans for ongoing reassessments are critical to the role – and Mina saw them firsthand during her time with me.
I have immensely enjoyed my preceptorship with Mina and am looking forward to mentoring a new, first-year medical student from the Queens-Lakeridge Health program. My experience has renewed my joy in medicine and reinvigorated my passion and love for the art of family medicine. Despite the many pain points family doctors face in Ontario, this mentorship role has allowed me to focus on the aspects I enjoy and can hopefully pass on to encourage this next generation of family doctors. I am excited to watch Mina progress through her studies. I am sure she will become an amazing family doctor once she graduates and look forward to seeing her out in field.
One day, I have no doubt that other young family doctors will be able to “light their candle” on the knowledge of Mina and her peers. In that way, the intimate involvement of family doctors in the teaching and training of students in the MD Family Medicine program truly offers a way to pay it forward.
Learning family medicine on the front lines
By Mina Jordanides
Photo credit: Eduardo Lima
“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.”
To Oprah Winfrey’s quote, I might add the words “and the hope inside your profession.”
A key feature of the MD Family Medicine Program is early clinical exposure, part of which requires students to participate in weekly half-day placements with a family physician in Durham Region. This unique opportunity, which most medical students don’t encounter until later in their training, is part of an innovative model aimed at addressing the critical shortage of family doctors by training practice-ready physicians.
During my first year of the program, I had the privilege of observing Dr. Anne Sorensen, who served as an invaluable mentor throughout my journey. Interacting with patients at such an early stage of my career was eye-opening, and I gained valuable insights from my time in the clinic.
For example, during my placements, the relevance between classroom learning and real-world practice was front-and-centre. Our program is unique in that the majority of our classroom sessions occur in small groups (called “small group learning”), whereby students and family physicians collaborate to examine patient cases that are representative of common presentations seen in the clinic.
After reviewing each case, we discuss what we know about the patient and highlight areas where our knowledge may be lacking.
I found myself using a similar approach in the clinic: I would assess what I already understood about a patient’s health and then determine what additional information I needed to explore further on my own time. For example, I remember learning about back pain in the classroom and then saw a patient with back pain the next day in the clinic. While I had foundational knowledge on the types of questions to ask the patient, watching Dr. Sorensen’s approach in real life provided me with new insights that I hadn’t thought of or read in textbooks, such as specific red flags to look for. Furthermore, Dr. Sorensen gave her patients pearls of wisdom that I’m sure will prove useful in my own practice. One notable pearl: when administering a nasal spray, use the left arm for the right nostril and vice versa (that way it points away from the septum). Overall, the frequent overlap between cases in class and cases in clinic has helped me revisit and deepen my knowledge over time.
Another important lesson I learned with Dr. Sorensen is that family medicine goes far beyond treating illnesses; it’s about building meaningful, trusting, and lasting relationships with patients. The focus should be on the person as a whole (rather than just their symptoms), including the social, emotional, and environmental factors that influence a patient’s health. Moreover, I was always amazed when patients shared how long they and their families had known Dr. Sorensen. Her in-depth understanding of their medical histories was genuinely inspiring and reminded me why I chose family medicine in the first place. I also learned that family physicians are often at the forefront of delivering difficult news to patients. Their established rapport with patients makes these conversations more manageable as opposed to having them meet with another specialist whom they don’t know as well.
The importance of that bond was reinforced by sheer urgency for family physicians. Perhaps the most influential encounters I had with patients were those that asked me when I’m going to graduate, often expressing their concerns about family and friends in need of a family physician. These interactions both reinforced the critical role family physicians play in the healthcare system and inspired me to continue working hard for my future patients and community.
Notably, my experience with Dr. Sorensen also extended beyond the clinic. I attended a large healthcare event she hosted in Durham Region, where she advocated for her community’s needs at a larger systemic level. Family doctors have a unique window into individual and collective healthcare, which allows them to identify wider pain points, trends within a community, or local health system.
My journey with Dr. Sorensen and her patients has solidified my commitment to making a positive impact in family medicine and within the communities I serve. More recently, I have started my second-year placement with another mentor in Port Perry, Ont., which I’m sure will further enrich my learning and allow me to see different practice strategies. Due to these early clinical experiences starting from Day 1 in medical school, I will feel much more prepared and confident transitioning into clerkship in third year.
At the end of the day, my mentorship experience was inspiring and made me hopeful about the difference I can make every day for patients, families, and communities.
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