University of British Columbia - Cardiac Surgery - Vancouver
2023 R-1 Main Residency Match - first iteration
CMG Stream for CMG
Room 486 - 1081 Burrard Street
St. Paul's Hospital
Vancouver, British Columbia, V6Z 1Y6
Program Contacts
General Instructions
Program application language: English
Supporting Documentation / Information
• Canadian Birth Certificate or Act of Birth
• Certificate of Canadian Citizenship
• Passport page showing Canadian Citizenship
• Canadian Permanent Resident Card (both sides of card)
Required documents for ALL applicants
Canadian Citizenship
The province of British Columbia will accept one of the following notarized/certified documents as proof of the citizenship/permanent residency and is required for all types of applicants. Photocopies are accepted but, citizenship documents other than what is listed below are not accepted. Proof of citizenship/permanent residency must be submitted to CaRMS by the File Review deadline. No allowances for late submission.
- Canadian Birth Certificate
- Canadian Passport
- Canadian Citizenship Certificate
- Canadian Citizen Card (both sides)
- Current Canadian Permanent Resident Card (both sides)
• IELTS
• Occupational English Test (OET) - Medicine
• Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) - General
CMG / USMG
If you graduated from an English medical school in Canada (including McGill) or the US, you are exempt from providing proof of language proficiency.
Candidates who attended medical school in Quebec or the University of Ottawa where the language of instruction or the primary language of patient care was not English, must fulfill the English Language Proficiency requirements of the College of Physicians of Surgeons of BC as identified below. This requirement is the same for IMGs and is required by the start of the Ranking Period.
IMG
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC requires applicants to be proficient in the English language.
The Registration Committee may determine that an applicant has demonstrated English language proficiency if the following conditions are met:
- The primary language of medical education was English, and
- The primary language of patient care was English.
Applications received by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC on or before June 30, 2023, who have not met the above requirements will require one of: IELTS Academic examination, OET Medicine Examination or CELPIP General Examination for licensing (see criteria below). As such, applicants must submit the proof of English language proficiency to CaRMS by the start of Ranking Period. Photocopies are acceptable.
- IELTS Academic - Minimum score of 7 in each component.
- IELTS scores are valid for a period of 2 years from the date taken.
- OET Medicine Examination - Minimum grade of B in each component.
- OET results are valid for a period of 2 years from the date taken.
- CELPIP General Examination - Minimum score of 9 in each component.
- CELPIP results are valid for a period of two years from the date taken.
Please note that results from these three examinations cannot be mixed. Candidates must meet all of the criteria in either the IELTS, OET or CELPIP examination.
Applicants are advised to review the College of Physicians and Surgeons English Language Proficiency Requirements here: https://www.cpsbc.ca/files/pdf/REG-ELP.pdf
Three letters of reference are required from staff physicians in which the relationship between the referee and the candidate should be well stated.
For current year Canadian medical graduates (CMGs), there is no action required from you. Your medical school will automatically submit your MSPR to CaRMS on your behalf for you to assign.
If your MSPR is in a language other than the program language of English or French, you are required to have the document translated.
Your medical school transcript can be submitted through one of the methods below:
- Obtain your medical transcript from your school and upload it directly to your CaRMS Online account. Follow your school’s policy regarding accessing or requesting your transcript;
- Ask your medical school to upload your medical transcript through their CaRMS Undergraduate Portal account; or
- International (IMGs) and United States (USMGs) medical graduates can transfer their transcript from their physiciansapply.ca account.
The candidate should submit a short letter outlining any personal history that may be appropriate and relevant to the application, state reasons for choosing cardiac surgery as a career and future goals.
Review Process
Applications submitted after file review has opened on January 10, 2023
Supporting documents (excluding letters of reference) that arrive after file review has opened on January 10, 2023
Letters of reference that arrive after the unmasking date on January 10, 2023
Interviews
Dates:
- February 11, 2023
Selection Criteria
All Applications are considered by the Residency Education Committee members composed of Program Director and members of each teaching hospital as well as one resident representative. Each of the short listed candidates will be interviewed after which the REC members will rank the candidates. All short listed candidates will require strong letters of reference.
Our program seeks individuals with strong academic records, technical aptitude, a demonstrated research interest and a commitment to learn.
Program goals
In designing the Cardiac Surgery program we want to expose the trainees to a wide multitude of experiences from clinical to non-clinical. The program is designed to expose surgeons to patients of all ages: neonatal to octogenarians. Downtown hospitals and peripheral hospitals with differing socio-economic patients. We aim to produce compassionate, well rounded surgeons who can serve diverse communities and societies. Many of the rotations involve being part of a medical team and how to develop skills within that framework will enable trainees to develop their own leadership traits such as interpersonal skills, insight, ethics, etc.
Selection process goals
Ethical, technically sound yet aware of limitations and willing to seek help and advice.
Team player, respectful of the entire team and willing to meet the demands of the program.
Kind, compassionate and a patient advocate who communicates clearly with all stakeholders.
Candidate should have excellent work-ethic, good interpersonal skills and insight.
Must be involved in research throughout residency and take an active role in teaching.
File review process
Review team composition : Program director and members of REC ; chief resident
Average number of applications received by our program in the last five years : 0 - 50
Average percentage of applicants offered interviews : 0 - 25 %
| File component | Criteria |
|---|---|
| CV | experience, education, accomplishments, interests |
| Electives | where and which electives taken |
| Examinations | grades |
| Extra-curricular | wide range off interests |
| Leadership skills | team player |
| MSPRs | overall assessment |
| Personal letters | reason why our program, reason why speciality, interests |
| Reference documents | source, work/education/personal /etc. |
| Research/Publications | subject matter, collaboration, types of presentations |
| Transcripts | Grades, courses taken |
Elective criteria
We are looking for applicants who have completed electives with a focus on Cardiac Surgery.
Interview process
Interview format :
We do not re-schedule interviews for applicants after we have completed the scheduling process.
| Interview components | Criteria |
|---|---|
| Collaboration skills | proven team player |
| Collegiality | interpersonal skills |
| Communication skills | clear, concise, compassionate communicator |
| Health advocacy | compassionate, knowledgeable, resourceful as patient advocate |
| Interest in the discipline | inherent passion for specialty |
| Interest in the program | demonstrates candidate has researched program |
| Leadership skills | what areas has candidate shown exemplary leadership skills |
| Professionalism | ability to be forthright , team player, interpersonal skills |
| Scholarly activities | research interests, how much research will be part of candidate’s career |
Information gathered outside of CaRMS application
Specifically, we may consider:Ranking process
The behavior(s) exhibited below during the interview process may prevent an applicant from being ranked by our program :Program Curriculum
This residency program is for 6 years.
Program length of training does not exceed the Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada standard.
The Cardiac Surgery program is organized so that it provides a stepwise graded increase in responsibility as the residents go from their junior to their senior years.
The first two years provide a core experience in which the residents have opportunities to learn the core principles of surgery with a high degree of focus on basis sciences and physiology. These are taught both at organized structured lectures as well as throughout each rotation informally.
The residents have an opportunity to utilize these and integrate them in to complex patient management. A variety of rotations in various surgical disciplines are provided to give a broad-based experience. The residents become part of a team and contribute to it.
The next two years provide more training in research as well as a much more clinical exposure with more emphasis on problem diagnosis and management. The residents have more responsibility both on call and in the operating rooms but still have both senior residents and attending staff available to help with clinical issues.
Ongoing academic learning is provided through academic half days as well as research days and journal clubs. The next two years provide a senior residency experience where the residents are expected to provide leadership and direction to the cardiac surgery team and have a direct link with the attending staff. They are also expected to teach the junior house staff including the medical students and junior residents. A heavy emphasis is put on intraoperative clinical skills with increased responsibility through the rotations as the residents transit from being first assistants to primary operators with the staff’s help.
The final six months is the chief residency year in which the residents are expected to take on an administrative function in terms of organization of house staff, rounds and cases. They are expected to “run” the service. They have the opportunity to make independent decisions although attending staff are available at all times. They are expected to be able to skillfully perform all the technical skills as outlined in the Royal College goals and objectives and also be able to teach intraoperative skills to more junior residents. The Program provides ample opportunities to meet all the requirements as set forth by the specialty committee and function as independent surgeons once the residency training is complete.
As our program goes further into CBD, there will be less emphasis on the above and more on the specific assessments, increased emphasis on indirect and direct observations, timely feedback where resident progression and promotion is based on evidence.
Seminars
There are scheduled weekly rounds on all cardiac surgical rotations as well as an academic half day every Wednesday. The academic day is comprised of two parts: a technical wet lab which involves live animals, cadaveric specimens and technical simulation stations all focused on improving the surgical skills of all levels of residents; alternating with didactic sessions which involve both resident and attending-led seminars. Residents participate and present during monthly journal clubs and attend research journal clubs every 3 months. We also provide opportunities for all residents to attend national and international meetings and conferences and it is expected that every resident will present and publish their research on an annual basis.
Training Sites
Resources
There are three adult cardiac and one pediatric cardiac training sites:
Vancouver General Hospital
St.Paul Hospital
Royal Columbian Hospital, and
BC Children's Hospital