Family Medicine - Rural

Unit Director, Rural Alberta South
Dr. Bobbie-Jo Whitfield (Medicine Hat)
Dr. C. Haig (Lethbridge)
c/o UCMC North Hill
#1707, 1632 - 14 Avenue NW
Calgary  AB  T2N 1M7
Phone: (403) 210-9237
Fax: (403) 210-9205
E-mail: Bobbi-Jo.Whitfield@arfmn.ab.ca
E-mail: charlotte.haig@arfmn.ab.ca

For further information see also:

http://www.carms.ca
http://www.crha-health.ab.ca/family medicine
http://www.rpap.ab.ca

 

 

Program Outline
The two-year curriculum is comprised of:

Family Medicine	40 weeks
Internal Medicine ICU	8 weeks 4 weeks
Pediatrics	8 weeks with Child Psychiatry
Surgery - General	4 weeks
Surgery - Orthopedic	4 weeks
Emergency	8 weeks with Anesthesia
Obstetrics & Gynecology	8 weeks
Psychiatry	4 weeks
Elective	16 weeks

Throughout the two years residents choose from a list of 17 designated sites where they will complete a total of 40 weeks of family medicine experience. Specialty rotations usually occur at either of our two regional centres (Lethbridge and Medicine Hat), except for ICU which occurs at one of the teaching hospitals in Calgary. Some residents may have the opportunity to do Obstetrics or  Internal Medicine in Yellowknife, Orthopedics in Cranbrook, and Obstetrics in High River.

In the first year residents doing rotations in their regional centre attend a ½ day per week of call back to a community-based family practice. With the exception of Obstetrics and ICU all call is home based.

Seminars
The majority of seminars/workshops occur during the academic days which are the first Thursday and Friday of each month. Thursday morning is designated as Academic Half Day, a videoconference with the University of Calgary. There are many seminars and rounds during all rotations. Videoconferencing and other distance communication educational aids will deliver many of the seminars. Workshops, internet-based discussion, video/teleconferencing are used to deliver academic content. Geriatrics, Palliative Care, Evidence Based Medicine, and Behavioral Medicine (communication skills, etc.) will be delivered through a combination of the above. In addition to the academics above, Rural Alberta South has two conferences with the urban U of C program per year, as well as Palliative Care workshops and two annual conferences with the Rural Alberta North program.

Research
A research project will be done in collaboration with the Calgary program. Completion and presentation of a resident project and participation in a Journal Club are required of our residents. Individual faculty will act as a resource to assist with all critical appraisal and project activities. An annual Resident Project Day is held in early March of each year. This day includes a combination of posters and oral presentations given by our second year residents. This event has been viewed as being quite successful from both resident and faculty perspectives.

Resources
The emphasis of this program will be on providing learning opportunities that meet the needs of rural medicine and in a context and practice environment that reflects, as much as possible, the real world of rural practice. This Residency Program will be based as much outside the tertiary centres as possible, with sharing of the resource base with the standard University of Calgary Family Medicine Residency Program. Educational experiences will be provided at Lethbridge Regional Hospital and Medicine Hat Regional Hospital. All family practice experiences will be based in rural and regional communities. Core teaching sites include Bassano, Blairmore, Bow Island, Brooks, Cardston, Claresholm, Consort, Drumheller, Fort Macleod, High River, Milk River, Pincher Creek, Raymond, Rocky Mountain House, Taber, Viking, and Vulcan, all in Alberta.

Selection Criteria
All selection to the Family Medicine Program is through the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS).

We look for candidates who demonstrate an interest in rural medicine, independence, and self-direction in their learning skills and decision making abilitities, and have excellent communication and interpersonal skills. Other qualities of interest to us include compassion, adaptability and role flexibility, research and leadership potential, self assessment skills, and conscientiousness.

We are interested in those with a demonstrated commitment to rural family medicine and community life. Teamwork is of particular importance in rural medicine, especially the ability to work with other allied health professionals.

We are particularly interested in candidates who can demonstrate a sensible balance between social and community life, and professional demands within a smaller community.