“We’re like chameleons,” Shayna Henry and Brooke Hoffman on why they chose academic family medicine

Assistant professors Shayna Henry (left) and Brooke Hoffman (right) sat down to discuss why they chose to practice academic family medicine, the residency experience at McMaster’s Department of Family Medicine and the impact of mentorship on their career trajectories.

Brooke Hoffman
I was asked the other day if I always wanted to be a family doctor and the answer is actually “no.” Before med school, I wanted to be a radiologist, but during med school I realized I really enjoyed many of the aspects of family medicine that were unknown to me prior to being exposed to family medicine. I like the social aspects and I really like the continuity — being able to see people grow up and getting to know them very well were both huge draws for me. 

Shayna Henry
For me, it was always the continuity of care. I only applied to family medicine for residency and always knew I was going to do family medicine. I just like the idea of actually being able to follow people through an issue and their lives. I’m a very chatty person and so much of family medicine is about getting to know people well, hearing their stories. 

I also like a million different things, so it’s the versatility as well. As family physicians we can work in different places, different spaces and always adapt our knowledge or grow our knowledge, to fill different needs. I don’t think that every specialty has the same ability to do that. We’re like chameleons.  

Brooke
Ha, ha! 

I never thought that I would want to do academic family medicine specifically, but having trained here at McMaster Family Practice, it’s a really great program; everyone that we work with here is so welcoming and so supportive. And, with academic family medicine I get to really showcase why I love family medicine.  

I had great preceptors in med school and in residency who showed me why they love family medicine. In this position, I get to do the same: teach residents, teach clerks; show them why family medicine is awesome. Why McMaster is awesome. 

Shayna
Before seeing what academic family doctors actually do, I think my idea was, “oh, it’s all research.” But, there’s so much more that you’re able to do, especially as a clinician educator. You can focus on education or curriculum development or really engage in more traditional research projects — anything that is interesting to you.  

Brooke
Yeah, there are opportunities to focus on the things that you see moving family medicine, as a discipline, forward. 

I always liked the idea that a family doctor could be sort of a woman’s reproductive health home. I did lots of electives in OB during my training. I had a preceptor in, I think like second year of med school, who was a family doc, who did OB in Saskatoon. I didn’t know that that was an option for family doctors until I met her. I was like, “oh, this is, this is what I’m going to do.”  

I love seeing clerks and residents have those same realizations about all that family medicine is and can be. 

Shayna
Goes to show how one preceptor can really change the trajectory of your life. 

I am passionate about social medicine and so I am developing an elective on the topic. As academic family docs, we can create learning opportunities that resonate with our own experiences, then share that with residents and learners. That is exciting! 

Brooke
A big part of why I’m here at McMaster is because I did residency here. I chose McMaster because the program seemed really appealing. I’m not from Hamilton, I’m from Saskatchewan. So, a long way from home, but when I was looking at the program itself for residency, it seemed really well-supported and residents looked happy here.  

We also have this unique block seven at McMaster where everyone does family medicine for the time around the holidays in December, which was probably one of the biggest drawing factors for why I chose Mac. 

Shayna
I trained abroad. I trained in Ireland. Residency interviews are kind of weird for international students — you do one interview for all the Ontario schools. This was before online interviews, so I had ranked Toronto as the location for my interview because I had to fly out the next morning. And then, of course, I got Hamilton. I came here and interviewed at McMaster Family Practice. Before the interview I thought I was going to rank Toronto but I left that interview and ranked McMaster first.  

After residency, I was a locum in a bunch of different places because I wanted to feel like McMaster Family Practice was a choice that I made rather than a default. And I kept ending up back here, I kept coming back here for longer and longer locums and then did a full practice coverage and ended up taking the practice that I was covering. 

It seems, all roads lead to McMaster. And I’m glad they do!