Three members of Southlake’s Family Medicine Teaching Unit, and a physician from Southlake’s Palliative Care team, have been recognized with Department of Family & Community Medicine Awards from the University of Toronto. Dr. Monica Nijhawan, Dr. Navsheer Gill, Rhonda Taylor and Dr. Adrianne Lebner were nominated by their peers in the following categories: Staff Excellence, Excellence in Leadership, Excellence in Teaching and Excellence in Course/Program Development.
“The recognition of these staff members by their peers demonstrates the high-quality staff and physicians who are caring for our patients,” said Dr. David Makary, Chief of Family Medicine at Southlake. “Each day they work tirelessly to ensure we’re providing the highest level of care and leading-edge training for future physicians, to support our patients and community.”
Southlake’s Family Medicine Teaching Unit is comprised of 11 teachers providing training to residents who operate their own practices as members of the Southlake Academic Family Health Team.
“We are incredibly proud of our staff and physicians for the recognition from their peers for their excellence in Family and Community Medicine,” said Dr. Charmaine van Schaik, Chief of Staff at Southlake. “Their ongoing commitment to learning, collaboration and improvement only strengthens the level of care they are able to provide to our patients.”
“Our staff are always making efforts to learn, grow and improve our practices to best serve our patients and community,” said Liz Ferguson, Vice President, Clinical Transformation, Quality & Patient Experience and Chief Nursing Executive. “The dedication shown to the program and its members continues to advance and excel thanks to the incredible staff in place and their commitment to excellence.”
Each year, Southlake’s Family Medicine Teaching Unit enrolls nine family medicine physician trainees – seven Canadian and two international medicine graduates – for a two-year program. These residents work alongside family physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, and other healthcare professionals in the Southlake Academic Family Health Team, while also learning from and collaborating with other specialists in other departments throughout the hospital.
