During the 1960s, there were significant changes in all teaching programs in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
With the advent of the “geographical full time” (GFT) appointments, the postgraduate programs become more organized and formalized.
For the undergraduates, large whole-class lectures were replaced by small-group tutorials. This was much approved and appreciated by the students, but put a huge demand on the volunteer clinical teachers. The sessions involved essentially the entire clinical staff and had the great secondary benefit of keeping the staff informed about, as well as involved in, the teaching programs.
In the 1970s, the pace of change accelerated. The medical school enrolment increased to 118 per year. With this large expansion in class numbers, the small-group tutorial system became unworkable and forced a return to the whole-class lecture system. The GFT faculty gave most of the lectures but the clinical postgraduate teaching was predominantly provided and supervised by the clinical faculty.
Additionally, the undergraduate curriculum had undergone major revision such that the clinical experience previously obtained in the rotating internship was now moved into the undergraduate years.
This increased further the involvement of the clinical faculty in medical education. This also necessitated heavy reliance on all of the other city hospitals to provide clinical experience for all levels of trainees.
In addition to the University and Royal Alexandra hospitals, this included the Misericordia, the Edmonton General (later to be relocated in new facilities and renamed the Grey Nuns) and the Charles Campsell hospitals. Again, it was the volunteer clinical faculty who provided, supervised and evaluated the clinical trainees at all levels.