Welcome Potential Residents

Welcome!  We're happy that you are interested in our residency program and this site will serve as a brief overview.  McMaster's Family Medicine residency program is organized into five different sites as depicted on the map below:  Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo (KW), Brampton, Niagara and Rural.

The site that you choose will serve as the "home base" for your two-year program.  While each site has distinctive features, all McMaster reisdents experience a common form Family Medicine curriculum as outlined below.  Each site represents a CaRMS option with the rural stream listing each available geographical site separately so that applicants know where they will be based geographically.

Residents can tailor their learning experience to their professional interests through Block Electives, the Enhanced Skills Program, the Research Stream or by choosing from different practice settings: rural, community-based or urban.

In whatever setting you choose, you will work alongside some of McMaster’s award-winning faculty, learning an interprofessional model of care. Early exposure to other health disciplines through practice experience and core rotations broadens our residents’ clinical knowledge base and improves the quality of care for patients.

How do I become a Resident at McMaster University? 

 

Choosing a University for your residency is an important decision and you will want to gather as much information as possible to help you make the decision that is right for you.  Below we have listed information about our program that will give you an outline of the curriculum as well as a description of a typical week in the life of a McMaster Family Medicine resident.

If you decide that the Family Medicine program at McMaster University is right for you, you will need to apply through CaRMS- the Canadian Resident Matching Service. Further information on the application process, deadlines and how to rank McMaster as your first choice can be found on their website at www.carms.ca.

 

Residency Program Brochure

For more information about our clinical teaching sites, please click on each location.

 

Family Medicine Program Outline

 

The first year curriculum includes the equivalent of:

4 months of Family Medicine
2 months of Internal Medicine
2 months of Obstetrics & Gynecology
2 months of Integrated Pediatrics and Neonatal Care
2 months of Emergency Medicine

The second year curriculum includes the equivalent of:

4 months of Family Medicine
2 months of Rural/Under-Serviced Community Family Medicine
2 months of Internal Medicine/Surgery Selective
1 month of Ambulatory Geriatrics
1 month Selectives
2 months Electives

These components may be organized as a block rotation or as an integrated curriculum. Integrated Curriculum is family medicine focussed with teaching geared toward primary care. The goal is to provide experiences with an increased family medicine relevance to ensure that Residents feel confident that they are practice-ready at the completion of two years.  Sites that have incorporated integration into their schedules are Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton (available in 2nd year) and Niagara.  At other sites (Hamilton, Brampton and Rural) these components are organized primarily in block rotations.

All residents participate in academic half-days, Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) tutorials and Quality Assurance (QA) activities during Family Medicine rotations. These activities provide residents with the skills they will need when in practice to continue learning and developing as effective practitioners. These activities also ensure that resident's are effective consumers of medical research while allowing them to apply research to their clinical activities.

Flexibility is provided by elective and selective opportunities in the second year, and horizontal elective time during Family Medicine experiences in both the first and second year of residency.  While on rotations other than Family Medicine, all residents return for two half-days each week; one for provision of clinical care to the resident's panel of patients in their Family Medicine setting, and one for a Behavioural Science tutorial.

Additional Core Curriculum Components:

In addition to the core rotations, there is a formal educational component to the residency program that is uniform for all residents.  These sessions focus on developing knowledge and skills for critical appraisal, information mastery, basic research skills, continuous quality improvement, practice management, procedural skills and selected family medicine topics that are chosen because of their common importance or limited opportunity for exposure within the program.

• Academic Half Days and Evidence Based Medicine
  
• Behavioural Science
• Resident Days (Procedural Skills and Practive Management)
• PBSG
• Palliative Medicine
• Care of the Elderly/Long Term Care

 

Typical Week

Below is an example of a typical week for a resident on a Family Medicine Rotation and an example a typical week for a resident on a specialty rotation.

Family Medicine Rotations

Time/Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning			Academic Half Day		Quality Assurance
Afternoon		Horizontal Elective Time	*Behavioural Science

 

All Other Rotations

Time/Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning			Clinical Half-Day
Afternoon			*Behavioural Science

 

The gray cells indicate a scheduled period that will be consistent for all residents within our program; while the blue cells indicate an activity that will be scheduled differently for each resident and the yellow cells (*) indicating an activity where the day may vary site to site. The uncoloured sections indicate time spent doing the actual rotation. Although these weeks are typical, please note that not all residents will experience a schedule exactly like these due to the variations in unit and individual schedules.

Note: *Behavioural Sciences is largely done Wednesday afternoons for most of our sites.  The exception to this currently is  that  Collingwood has Behavioural Science on Friday afternoons.

** We have also introduced an integrated option which is available at our Kitchener-Waterloo and Niagara Sites.  A sample week in our integrated program could look something like this:

Time/Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning	Gyne Clinic		FM	Newborn Care or KidsAbility	FM
Afternoon		Inter-Professional Clinic - CFFM	Resident Rounds  Behavioural Science	Peds Psych	FM
Evening		Maternal/Child Care