Red Deer distributed site

This community of 100,000 lies within the Edmonton - Calgary corridor, 150 km from both cities. The 390-bed Red Deer Regional Hospital has a full complement of specialists providing care to the roughly 300,000 residents of the region. Family physicians continue to have a key role within the hospital and act as the attending physician for half of all admissions. The city has a thriving recreational base, together with a complete range of cultural and educational activities. Rural family medicine rotations occur at our many rural teaching sites. These sites are generally in medium sized rural communities (5000 - 10000 people) with busy emergency rooms and active surgical and obstetrical programs. Some sites are within close range of the Red Deer home base but many residents choose to go to other more distant communities as far away as Whitehorse. 

PGY1: The first year of our program includes a mix of hospital based specialty rotations and an extended rural family medicine block. Specialty rotations are often shared with other FM residents and sometimes with fellowship residents from Edmonton or Calgary. Preceptor based learning ensures excellent access to clinical cases and individual teaching which is usually one-on-one. Because clinical services are not dependent on the presence of house staff, on-call is often from home and learning experiences are focused on education more than service. The 16 week rural family medicine rotation allows prolonged exposure ensures a true experience of comprehensive care and continuity of care. Residents are assigned a Faculty Advisor at the beginning of their first year. This will be one of the Site Co-Directors who will follow their progress and provide academic advice throughout the 2 years of training. In addition, residents are paired with a family doctor in the area who has volunteered to act as a mentor to that resident throughout their training.

PGY2: There are further specialty rotations in second year but the main thrust of PGY2 is to develop the resident as a rural family physician, building on the knowledge skills and attitudes acquired in the first year. The key rotations are two additional rural family medicine blocks of 8 weeks and 16 weeks duration. These rotations provide further opportunities to experience comprehensive medicine and continuity of care in a rural setting. There is an option to do the 8 week rural family medicine rotation at an international location.

Rotation Structure