July 2022

July 2022 Blog: Connection in Health Professions Education

I’m Jacqueline Ashby, a researcher, medical educator, and designer at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine. I love to learn and share resources and tips & tricks that assist us in training our healthcare professionals. Here are a few things I’ve come across this month:

Three Things I’ve Explored 


  • Our brains are wired to forget and resist. Spaced repetition, spiral curriculum, and micro-learning are new methods educators are experimenting with to reinforce and connect content.

    Read more on “The new way doctors learn: A simple technique dramatically improved the memory recall of Harvard Medical School students” via Time.

  • Accommodating different learning styles can be a challenge in delivering new content especially since navigating to online teaching and learning.

    For visual learners, check out this 5-minute video on spaced repetition via Osmosis.

  • We all have stories to tell and designing one around your content assists learners in remembering something new. 

    “See what makes storytelling so effective for learning?” via Harvard Business.

    Two things I’ve Discovered in the Last 30 days:

  • Intentionally allocating time to disconnect from work is as important as the activities we create for greater engagement. 
    Read more on “Resilience is about how you recharge, not how you endure”

  • The inability to disconnect and provide the time to recharge results in an increase in incidences of health and safety problems and costs ~$62 billion a year in lost productivity. 
    One Podcast I’m Listening To: There’s been a great of discussion on youth suicide since the pandemic hit in 2020. I highly recommend the Canadian Medical Association Journal’s podcast on suicidality crisis in youth and among transgender adolescents.

    A Final Point - "If you really want to build resilience, you can start by strategically stopping" Shawn Achor and Michelle


    • Dr. Jacqueline P. Ashby, Ed.D. (she, her, hers)
    Assessment & Evaluation Co-Lead
    UBC Family Medicine Residency Program Curriculum Advisor
    UBC Family Practice Enhanced Skills Program Faculty Development Coach
    Team-Based Primary Care Learning Centres Project Program Coach
    Abbotsford-Mission Family Practice Residency Program Faculty of Medicine
    Department of Family Practice The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus