Drs. Judith and Daniel Plante, 2009 Community Teachers of the Year

The Doctors Plante met in Med school at McGill, where Judith was in the class of '89 and Daniel in the class of '90. Judith found herself at McGill after high school on Cape Breton Island and a BSc at Dalhousie. Daniel arrived from the Québec CEGEP and MedP programs. After medical school, the Plante's (married in 1990) completed the University of Ottawa Family Medicine residency at the Bruyère site. They headed north in 1992 and spent 2 years working in Kirkland Lake doing Emergency Medicine, Inpatient Care, Obstetrics and office practice. In 1994, they moved south to Pembroke, in the Ottawa valley, to settle in a group practice that was closer to family but continued to include all the aspects of comprehensive family medicine. Judith and Daniel have been actively teaching students and residents on "rural rotations" since 1994 with gradually increasing numbers of trainees. In 2008, the Plantes moved their practice into the newly renovated Pembroke Family Medicine Teaching Unit at the Pembroke Regional Hospital, where they have been active staff since 1994. They are the unit directors and now have three permanent residents who are doing their full residencies in Pembroke. They plan to increase the resident numbers to 4 fulltime trainees and as many "rural rotation" residents as they can schedule in. The Plantes have 2 teenage daughters and a big dog and aim to show residents how to balance life and work by dragging them along on Nordic ski expeditions, mountain bike rides and other pursuits. Both Judith and Daniel enjoy the challenge and fresh perspectives that teaching brings to practice and take pride in doing their part to train the next generation of family doctors. Their approach to teaching combines the "passion of the French Canadian" (Daniel) and the "practicality of a Maritimer" (Judith) and it seems to work!