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Saskatchewan’s Royal College Emergency Medicine training program is run through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and has its main training site in Saskatoon and its distributed site in Regina. Founded in July 2011, we currently have 20 residents across all years of training. In 2023 we expanded to include Regina as a distributed training site, with five residents based at this site and 15 residents based in Saskatoon.
Pasqua Hospital
Regina General Hospital (RGH)
Residents from many specialty programs at the University of Saskatchewan spend some clinical time in Regina. There is a growing number of specialty programs with training based in Regina including plastic surgery, physical medicine & rehabilitation and dermatology.
Royal University Hospital (RUH)
Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital (JPCH)
St. Paul’s Hospital (SPH)
Saskatoon City Hospital (SCH)
Saskatchewan’s capital, Regina, mixes modern amenities and historical treasurers. With a population of ~240,000, Regina is warm and welcoming, and attracts both residents and visitors alike.
Nestled on the South Saskatchewan River, Saskatoon boasts unique charm and appeal. With a population of ~300, 000, this vibrant city combines natural beauty, urban amenities, a thriving arts and culture scene, delectable cuisine, and vital Indigenous heritage.
Distributed learning that maximizes experience in diverse communities
While physically located in Saskatoon, The College of Medicine is a provincial resource in attitude and in practice. Postgraduate medical education at the University of Saskatchewan takes seriously its role in supporting quality health care to all people of Saskatchewan. This means training physicians to meet the needs of not only urban populations, but also rural and remote populations.
The College of Medicine has developed, and continues to develop, rotations in Saskatoon, Regina, and other communities. These rotations are designed to provide educational experiences to enhance your knowledge and skills, and take maximum advantage of unique educational opportunities in diverse communities. All postgraduate programs are expected to develop and incorporate into their curriculum rotations in communities other than their primary training site of Saskatoon or Regina. The way each program does this is not strictly prescribed by the College of Medicine, but is instead determined by the Residency Program Committee, taking into consideration the needs of their residents, and the excellent opportunities available in other locations. These rotations continue to evolve as we seek to build stronger and better programs.
Extensive support is available for all rotations completed away from one’s primary site. The exact nature of this support varies with location and program. The communities involved, individual programs, the College of Medicine, and the Ministry of Health work collaboratively to ensure residents are not financially disadvantaged by the need to relocate.
Temporary housing is available at no expense for residents assigned to short-term rotations at distributed sites in Saskatchewan. Family-friendly and pet-friendly housing is available upon request.
Residents in the Saskatoon Royal College EM Residency Program should plan to complete three blocks of Emergency Medicine in Regina (PGY-1, 2 & 5), one block of Toxicology in Calgary or New York (PGY-3), and one block of regional/rural Emergency Medicine at their site of choice (PGY-4).
Residents in the Regina Royal College EM Residency Program should plan to complete five blocks of EM (PGY-1 to 5), one block of orthopedics (PGY-1), one block of plastics (PGY-1), two blocks of peds EM (PGY-1, 4) and one block of PICU (PGY-4) in Saskatoon. One block of Toxicology in Calgary or New York (PGY-3), and one block of regional/rural Emergency Medicine at their site of choice (PGY-4) will also be expected.
As Regina grows in its capacity to accommodate learners in the above noted rotations, Regina-based residents will complete increasingly more rotations in Regina and spend less time working at other sites.
An academic curriculum designed for your success
Over the past year, we overhauled our academic curriculum with the goal of using more active learning techniques, removing redundancies within the curriculum, and delving more into the depths—not just the breadths—of Emergency Medicine. This curriculum, outlined below, is now in its first year of implementation and has received promising initial feedback from residents.
Academic Half Day (AHD) takes place on Wednesday afternoons. It is shared with the CFPC-EM Program, which runs a distributed program in Saskatoon, Regina, and Swift Current. AHD is video-conferenced between all three sites. Academic Full Days (AFD) occur approximately twice per month, often including practice exams and simulation sessions in the morning. To see the five-year program curriculum table, click here.
Learn more about our curriculum
While the following curriculum may seem like a lot, it has been purposely mapped and regularly reviewed to ensure you are given the best opportunity to become a competent emergency medicine specialist!
Resident-Led Topic Presentations: These 25-minute talks are a focused and in-depth review of two to three major issues within a given topic.
Staff-Led Case Presentations: These 25-minute interactive cases illustrate clinical reasoning and application of knowledge through real-time management of cases, delivered by faculty emergency physicians. Cases are delivered by physicians at all three training sites.
Resident-Led Peds Guidelines Rounds: A two-year curriculum covering the top 22 pediatric EM guidelines has been developed, whereby residents pre-read the provided guidelines and then participate in this resident-led session that focuses on the application of the guidelines to common EM cases.
Staff-Led Adult Guidelines Rounds: A two-year curriculum covering the top 18 adult EM guidelines has been developed, whereby residents pre-read the provided guidelines and then participate in this staff-led session that focuses on the application of the guidelines to common EM cases.
Consultant Rounds: These sessions are led by non-EM physicians, focusing on skills that have room for improvement based on the perspective of our non-EM consultant colleagues.
Group Learning: Led by residents, these sessions focus on interactive and group-based learning on the topics of the monthly Rosen’s textbook readings. These sessions provide opportunity for group discussion and to delve into the depths of emergency medicine.
Self-Directed Learning: In order to remove curriculum redundancies and support residents wellness, we offer self-directed learning time for residents to complete their assigned curriculum tasks during protected AHD time.
Provincial Grand Rounds: The provincial Department of Emergency Medicine is facilitating provincial grand rounds. Residents are encouraged to attend and will have protected time to do so if they wish.
Trauma Rounds: Residents are encouraged to attend monthly trauma rounds.
Saskatchewan Emergency Medicine Annual Conference (SEMAC): SEMAC is a conference targeting family physicians and emergency physicians who work in regional and rural Saskatchewan. It’s a great conference for residents and medical students to attend.
Wellness Rounds: Once a month, we have a presentation on a wellness topic, followed by a group activity session, with the goals of promoting regular healthy habits in the busy life of a resident, providing an opportunity for residents to bond outside of work-related duties, and building resiliency. All physical activities are scalable and adaptable to be inclusive to all, and efforts have been made to have a mix of fitness and non-fitness activities. Wellness rounds are optional for residents, recognizing that wellness looks different to different people.
Procedure Rounds: Procedure rounds follow a curriculum that is based on the core procedures of emergency medicine, and are designed to provide residents with simulated experiences for procedures that they will be expected to perform and collect EPAs on during their clinical rotations. The first half of the session will focus on more advanced procedures (typically led by a staff physician), and the second half of the session will typically be led by residents. Occasionally, allied health professionals or staff/resident physicians from other disciplines will facilitate these sessions.
Ultrasound Rounds: Our ultrasound curriculum is stratified by years of training. PGY-1 residents focus on FAST scan (free fluid abdomen, lung, heart) and procedural guidance (central line placement) through the RAPID course. PGY-2 residents focus on Obstetrical, Renal, and Aorta scanning. PGY-3 residents focus on resuscitative ultrasound (advanced cardiac, lung, IVC). Once per month residents meet and review an ultrasound topic, then proceed to practice scanning with supervising faculty. Residents are expected to log a target number of scans each year, with a percentage of them being observed as EPAs. There is an ultrasound exam at the end of each year.
SuperSlM: Residents participate in six interdisciplinary, high-fidelity simulation sessions per year based on our resuscitation curriculum themes of Cardiac, Shock, Toxicology, Trauma, Geriatrics, and Airway. Residents also participate in two simulation sessions during each of their Pediatric EM rotations.
The Geriatrics and Toxicology SuperSlMs are hosted within our annual special AFDs: Geri-EM Day and Tox-Day. Additionally, we host a yearly Disaster Day, which is an AFD focusing on mass casualty training, with a high-fidelity large-scale simulation event and other learning modalities as well.
Simulation for Assessment: PGY-1 residents participate in Transition to Discipline simulation sessions in July, targeting EPA 1.1 (recognizing the sick patient), and Foundations simulations sessions during the RAPID course, targeting EPA 2.1 (assisting in the care of an ill patient). PGY-2 & 3 residents participate in Difficult Airway simulation sessions, targeting EPA 3.3 (Airway Management).
Journal Club: Our combined resident and faculty provincial journal club runs quarterly over the year in the evenings.
Rosen’s Rounds: Residents will be assigned monthly reading of Rosen’s Emergency Medicine textbook. The bulk of this textbook is covered every two years. A faculty member develops exam-style questions on the assigned reading, and residents write a low-stakes practice exam during protected AHD time. The answers to the questions are reviewed the following week during an evening social event over supper, generally hosted at the faculty member’s house. New this year is a reading schedule that is more purposefully designed to ensure a variety of topics/chapters are covered each month (as opposed to the previous schedule where multiple chapters from the same topic were read in the month). This will provide greater variety and intermingling of concepts for learners.
Canadian In-Training Exam (CITE): This short-answer style exam is designed to reflect the style and content of the Royal College Exam. It is written in the fall and winter, and scores are compared nationally to give residents a sense of their progress in training. Our monthly textbook rounds are designed to prepare residents for this type of exam.
Practice Oral Exams: Residents will be exposed to at least one practice oral exam session per year, and several in their final year. We also run an annual mock oral exam, where residents participate in 12 oral exam cases over 2.5 hours. This exam is modelled after the Royal College oral exam format.
PGY-1: Transition to Discipline & Foundations of Discipline
You’ll spend the majority of the year being exposed to Emergency Medicine (EM) in order to develop the framework for acquisition of expertise during off-service rotations later in residency. Each EM block will consist of 14 shifts, and you’ll attend other academic and curricular requirements.
PGY-2: Core of Discipline
PGY-3: Core of Discipline
PGY-4: Core of Discipline
PGY-5: Transition to Practice
Each resident is assigned a Royal College Faculty Academic Advisor (AA) and a CCFP-EM Longitudinal Supervisor/Mentor. When on EM rotations, residents work at least a couple of shifts with each of these physicians, who can provide insightful feedback on their progress through repeated longitudinal exposure. The process is as follows:
Three times yearly, residents will review all of their assessment data (EPAs, practice exam scores, other assessment data), fill out a self-assessment form on their progress, and have a meeting with their Academic Advisor to review their progress. AAs have been trained in a local coaching model based on the self-regulated learning theory to help residents set goals for the next quarter.
The resident and AA submit a report to the Competence Committee (CC).
One CC member completes primary review of the resident’s assessment data, as well as the self-assessment and AA report. They present their findings to the CC members for discussion and recommendations for progress. Targeted learning goals are summarized.
The Program Directors meet with each resident shortly after the CC meeting to share their progress decision and learning plan.
The summary of their progress and learning plan are sent to the AA and Longitudinal Supervisor/’Mentor for focused coaching on shift.
Because of this robust spectrum of assessment and our smaller-sized program, we can ensure you will achieve your academic goals and grow into an effective specialist emergency physician.
Funding
We offer multiple sources of revenue to support your education. Because of this, we are able to reimburse you for many training costs, including Rosen’s textbooks, Roberts and Hedges’ textbooks, the ATLS course, PALS course, Airway Course, NRP Course, ATLS Instructor Course, ACLS Instructor Course, PALS Instructor Course, Exam Prep courses, $3,000 toward your ACE, $2,000 toward presenting at a conference once, $500 for annual conference attendance, travel for all mandatory learning, and other expenses on a case-by-case basis.
Self-scheduling
Starting in PGY-3, you will self-schedule all of your EM shifts. Residents really enjoy this perk as it is more realistic to staff practices and allows them to schedule around their personal lives and promote personal wellness.
Retreats
The program hosts a fall retreat and summer retreat each year, which serves as both a social event and curriculum review opportunity. Additionally, residents host a faculty-free wellness retreat (usually skiing or something else fun), funded by the program.
