Program Contacts

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Important Information

Please review Memorial University's Provincial Criteria and admission requirements for postgraduate medical education. 

 

COVID-19 VACCINES:

As of September 2021, Memorial University requires COVID-19 vaccines for all students, faculty and staff, and masks are required on all Memorial campuses in indoor spaces. Please refer to the University's COVID-19 website for up-to-date information.

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Return of Service

CMG/USMG:

No return of service (RoS) is required for CMG seats.

 

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General Instructions

Program application language: English

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Supporting Documentation

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Review Process

Applications submitted after file review has opened on January 31, 2022

Supporting documents (excluding letters of reference) that arrive after file review has opened  on  January 31, 2022

Letters of reference that arrive after the unmasking date on January 31, 2022

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Interviews

Dates:

• March 14, 2022

Selection Criteria

Assets

The following are considered priorities in ranking applicants.

• Demonstrates academic achievement at university and medical school level
• References and CV reflects ability to get along and work well with others
• Demonstrates an interest in scholarly activity and research
• Extra curricular interests are suggestive of skills that are valuable to the field
• The interview resonates personality and character that will be compatible wih the existing resident group

Program goals

The overall goal of the Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program is to train orthopedic surgeons to provide compassionate, contemporary musculoskeletal surgical care to the community with standards in keeping with those defined by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. This pursuit encompasses a primary goal to train competent orthopedic surgeons who are ready to either proceed directly to practice general orthopedic surgery in a community setting or to progress to a clinical fellowship of their choice in an orthopedic surgery subspeciality. Our goal is to not only train towards surgical competence, but also for success in non-medical expert roles and balance in life in general, in an effort to encourage our residents to become well-rounded practitioners who are capable of collaboration and cooperation in the workplace and the community.

Selection process goals

The successful applicant to our program will demonstrate a number of key features. First, there should be academic aptitude to meet the educational standards of our specialty through a demonstration of prior academic achievement. Second, there should be a demonstation of technical capability to grasp surgical priniciples, often shown through a variety of extra-curricular activities and verified through reference letters. Third, there should be demonstrated capacity in the ability to communicate and cooperate with others in a professional manner, as demonstrated through positive feedback during previous clinical rotations and reference letters. Finally, as our program is smaller size than others, it is imperative for the functioning of our resident group that the personality of the applicant is expected to be compatible with the other residents; this will be assessed during the interview process.

File review process

Evaluation criteria :

Elective criteria

Interview process

Interview evaluation criteria :

Information gathered outside of CaRMS application

Specifically, we may consider:
Social interaction during program related events
Communication with program administration
Social media
Unsolicited reference letters
Unsolicited email references
Unsolicited verbal information on a candidate's prior performance
Unsolicited feedback from colleagues and co-workers

Ranking process

The behavior(s) exhibited below during the interview process may prevent an applicant from being ranked by our program :
Unprofessional or inappropriate behavior   
Did not attend interview   
Interview performance was not competitive   

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Program Highlights

Memorial University is located in beautiful Newfoundland & Labrador, where the scenery and landscape is truly as beautiful as the tourism advertisements suggest, and the people are a welcoming as rumored to be. Our program encourages healthy work-life balance and is one where the professional and social lives of our residents are often intertwined. This has always been a welcome aspect of our tightly-knit resident group, who have enjoyed the culture that St. John's has to offer and explored the beauty of our rugged island together.

Prospective candidates are encouraged to contact our Program Director, Dr. Keegan Au (email:keegan.au@mun.ca) to discuss the program as a potential fit for them. Students are also encouraged to speak directly to one of our existing residents so that an honest and unbiased reflection of what our program offers can be obtained directly from them. Please contact the Program Assistant to obtain contact information for one of the residents from our administrative year. 

Check out the MUN Orthopedic Surgery Residency program Instagram page "munortho" to learn about our program, our residents and our beautiful city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Program Curriculum

This residency program is for 5 years.

Program length of training does not exceed the Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada standard.

Curriculum

The five-year Competence by Design program is designed to produce a "general" orthopedic surgeon. 

We have one mandatory rural rotation of three months duration in PGY 3. This is done in Gander, NL; Corner Brook, NL; Saint John, NB; or at another community hospital site approved by PGME and the program director.

A three month elective is scheduled in PGY 4 and residents are encouraged to travel for this time exposing themselves to areas of interest.

PGY 1

Rotation	Duration	Location/Notes
Adult Orthopedic Surgery	16 weeks	HSC/SCMH
Elective	4 weeks	Resident's Choice
Emergency	4 weeks	HSC/SCMH
General Surgery	4 weeks	HSC
Medicine	4 weeks	SCMH
Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery	8 weeks	JCH
Physiatry	2 weeks	Leonard Miller Centre
Rheumatology	2 weeks	HSC/SCMH
Research	4 weeks	Residents Choice
Vascular Surgery	4 weeks	SCMH

PGY 2

Rotation	Duration	Location/Notes
ICU	2 months	HSC/SCMH
MSK Radiology	1 month	HSC/SCMH
Neurosurgery	3 months	HSC
Orthopedic Surgery	6 months	HSC/SCMH

PGY 3

Rotation	Duration	Location/Notes
Community Orthopedic Surgery	3 months	Corner Brook/Gander/Saint John/other approved site
Orthopedic Surgery	6 months	HSC/SCMH
Plastic Surgery	3 months	HSC

PGY 4

Rotation	Duration	Location/Notes
Adult Orthopedic Surgery	6 months	HSC/SCMH
Elective Orthopedic Surgery/Research	3 months	Resident's Choice
Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery	3 months	JCH

PGY 5

Chief Resident Year

Rotation	Duration	Location/Notes
Adult Orthopedic Surgery	9 months	HSC/SCMH
Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery	3 months	JCH

Research

Residents are expected to actively participate in Resident Research Day every second year with completion of research scholarly activity in accordance with the Royal College's CBD curriculum for orthopedic surgery. 

Opportunity exists for residents to be involved in independent local research or in some of the multi-centre trials that our centre becomes involved in. Resources exist to support the residents in their endeavors, including an orthopedic research director, an orthopedic research nurse and access to experts in biostatistics and clinical epidemiology within the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial. In addition, projects have been completed in association with the biomechanical lab at the Faculty of Engineering, with our local 3D printing capabilities and through our close relationship with Team Broken Earth and its educational mandate in developing countries.

A resident may also complete a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology while at Memorial. Allowances can be made to help facilitate a student in completing this program during their 5 year residency, provided it is not felt to be a detriment to their orthopedic surgery training.

Seminars

There are weekly rounds as listed below:

• Fracture Rounds - All staff, residents and clerks attend
• Surgical Foundations - Mandatory for all PGY 1 and PGY 2 residents in general surgery, orthopedic surgery and obstetrics/gynecology
• Grand Rounds - Mandatory for all orthopedic residents with supervision by faculty
• Resident Case Rounds - lead by senior residents and supervised by faculty
• Anatomy Rounds (Fall months) - Mandatory for all residents and one supervising staff person
• Surgical Skills Course (Summer) - Mandatory for all PGY 1 and PGY 2 residents and one supervising staff person
• Pediatric Rounds - Mandatory for all residents and pediatric orthopedic surgeons 

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Training Sites

Resources

The primary teaching hospitals involved are: St. Clare's Mercy Hospital (SCMH), the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) and the Janeway Children's Health and Rehabilitation Centre (JCH).

Regional hospitals available for community orthopedic experiences include: James Paton Memorial Hospital, Gander, NL, Western Memorial Regional Hospital, Corner Brook, NL and Saint John, NB.

There is a resident room with digital access dedicated to orthopedic resident use at St. Clare's Mercy Hospital. At the combined Health Science Centre and Janeway site is the medical school library with multiple workstations. Wireless internet access is available at all city hospital sites. A number of digital references have been purchased by the program for resident use.

There is one three-month elective period in the PGY 4 which can be used for experiences at the choice of the resident with approval of the program.

There are between 13-15 residents and 16 faculty covering all subspecialties of orthopedic surgery.  Regular interaction occurs between staff and residents. Additional faculty for other disciplines (plastic surgery, radiology, neurosurgery and surgeons at rural sites) are also involved in teaching and resident supervision.

There are approximately 30 inpatient beds at each adult institution with usually three residents per site. There are usually less than 10 pediatric inpatients with 1-2 residents on site.

The residents work in all subspecialties of orthopedics. Due to its size, our program follows a more longitudinal model than that seen at other centres, with mixed subspecialty experiences occurring concurrently rather than in isolated blocks. This allows for constant exposure and prevents skills and knowledge from growing stale. Staff fellowship training includes: Trauma, Arthroplasty, Hand & Wrist, Upper Extremity, Spine, Orthopedic Oncology, Pediatrics, Foot and Ankle and Sports Medicine 

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Additional Information

OSCE-type examinations are carried out twice a year: one testing medical expert capabilities and the second focused on the intrinsic CanMEDS roles. All residents write the annual Orthopedic In-Training Exam (American) and are required to complete the Royal College's Surgical Foundations Exam curriculum.