The reason for establishing the University of Alberta Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in 1922 was to develop formalized teaching programs. This remains the foremost objective of the department.
In the early days, the teaching responsibilities were limited to formal didactic lectures for undergraduate medical students. Patient contact (clinical) training occurred only after graduation. Initially this was not provided at the University of Alberta. Graduates had to go elsewhere, usually to “the East” to complete their education. “Residency” in our specialty had not yet been invented. By the 1940s, the educational process had changed little. Dr. Nelson describes the situation:
The undergraduate student load at that time numbered about 60 to 65, and there were two set lectures a week of one hour each throughout the academic year. Clinical experience of students was delayed until “graduation” when a year of obligatory rotating internship was undertaken. Students had a written examination at the end of their formal academic period, and this was in essence the same examination that was set for the L.M.C.C. After the departmental members had marked the papers, they were then forwarded to the L.M.C.C. for their assessment. At the end of the year of rotating internship, an oral exam was carried out of the students, for their formal recognition as L.M.C.C.
By this time, the University of Alberta Hospital had a thriving rotating internship program. A major function of the faculty, all of whom were volunteer teachers, was supervision of the interns, mostly in the “public” clinics that were run on the basis of charity.
Formal “residency” training was not yet formally recognized and only the occasional physician elected to take an extra year do gain extra expertise in obstetrics and gynecology.
Through the 1950s, the residency program began to take shape. The resident staff was quite variable in number, ranging from one to three or four per year. The program consisted mainly of clinical experience in out-patient clinics and in the operating theatres. The formal educational curriculum was “varied and flexible.”