Who says bedtime stories are just for children? A newly published children’s book Mommy is Becoming a Doctor and Daddy is Becoming a Doctor hopes to not only help parents in the medical field spend time with their kids, but study at the same time.
Written by Vancouver author and physician Dr. Simon Moore, edited by the Sunshine Coast’s Dr. Paul Dhillon and illustrated by Aline Shabelnyk, the storybook doubles as a study guide for parents prepping for the Canadian Certification Examination in Family Medicine. For many family doctors, it’s the biggest exam they’ll take, Dhillon said.
The book launched at the Family Medicine Forum in Toronto on Nov. 9. In an interview with Coast Reporter, Dhillon said he helped with the initial writing of the story before he was deployed with the military.
As readers follow the story, medically accurate illustrations contain hints to developmental milestones, pediatric safety tips, and recommended exam habits for the CCFP Exam. The story itself follows a physician parent balancing family life with their medical training, as seen through the eyes of their child.
“That way parents can learn while reading the book to their children, nieces, nephews,” Dhillon, a Sechelt emergency medicine physician, said in a press release.
As medical educators with the Review Course in Family Medicine, Moore and Dhillon have trained thousands of doctors for the Canadian Family Medicine examination at their events across North America since Dhillon joined around 2015.
“Since we started The Review Course in Family Medicine we have always been trying to come up with innovative and effective ways to teach,” says Moore. “This book is just one more way we’re trying to help make learning fun.”
The doctors try to inject their course with humour, high energy and short lectures. Over the years, they noticed the demographics shifting toward more people with kids who are trying to study — the inspiration for the storybook.
Demographics is also why there are two versions of the book. Dhillon said about 60 per cent of graduating family physicians are women: “The future is distinctly female within family medicine.” As fathers, the co-authors wanted to make sure parents were well represented.
Balancing family and becoming or being a doctor “is very hard,” Dhillon said, but he’s seen an active focus in the next generations of doctors toward trying to maintain a decades-long career without burning out.
“Who says you can’t learn while spending quality time with your family?” Moore added in the release.
Both versions of the book can be found on Amazon in e-book and paperback.
