Program Contacts

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General Instructions

Program application language: Either English or French

The application can be submitted in English or French.

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Supporting Documentation / Information

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Review Process

Applications submitted after file review has opened on December 2, 2023

Supporting documents (excluding letters of reference) that arrive after file review has opened  on  December 2, 2023

Letters of reference that arrive after the unmasking date on December 2, 2023

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Interviews

Dates:

• January 15, 2024

Selection Criteria

A strong academic record, with proficiency in wide areas (correlating with the horizontal nature of the specialty). A proven interest in our specialty.  Demonstrated leadership skills. Interest in developing an academic career and a willingness to be actively involved in research, administration, teaching, (i.e. someone who wants to be more than a clinical physician). References from emergency specialists who are involved in academic careers. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

Program goals

Our residents will demonstrate excellent clinical skills with particular attention to technical skills. They will develop enhanced communication skills and excel at working in a team environment. Residents in our program will also be very involved in different initiatives within the program. They will strengthen and develop research, administrative, and leadership skills. A strong work work-life balance is very encouraged with involvement in extra-curricular activities.

Selection process goals

Identify applicants who have a strong interest in Emergency Medicine.

Applicants must have excellent communication skills and work well in a collaborative team environment. 

Applicants must have demonstrated strong leadership skills and a proficiency in all CanMeds roles.

Applicants must have an interest in Academic EM with specific interests in research, teaching or administrative roles.

Applicants must be willing to get involved in different aspects of the program such as teaching, social events, administrative roles within the residency itself.

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

Hello future Emergency Medicine Resident!

If you strive for excellence, aspire to become a leader in the field, and feel that you deserve the best training in a fantastic cosmopolitan city, then McGill EM is the place for you. While there are many excellent EM programs across the country that provide training to become emergency medicine specialists, none are quite like McGill.  We are undisputedly one of the top programs in North America.  Our standards of excellence and reputation are well renowned and portable to almost anywhere in the world. While it is impossible to enumerate all the strengths of such a program, we have prepared a list that will help you understand why McGill should be your number one choice. 

1. State of the Art Simulation Center: McGill is home to one of the largest, most comprehensive medical simulation centers in Canada. With dedicated staff, patient actors, conference rooms, procedure rooms, and high fidelity simulation rooms, the possibilities for learning are virtually endless.

Practice procedures such as intubations, cricothyroidotomies, bronchoscopies, chest tube insertions, ultrasound-guided central lines, and pericardiocentesis, all under the direct guidance of experts in the field.

Participate in scenarios that have been developed specifically to focus on skills rare or difficult to practice in the clinical setting but essential in critical circumstances and develop confidence and integrate knowledge with technical proficiency when you are faced with the real world situations.

You will have the chance to develop your own simulation during your senior years. Examples of previous Sim Days include:

• Disaster management – Learn field triage scenarios and training with Hazmat equipment
• Airway Day – Assess patients with difficult airways and practice using rescue devices
• Critical Cases in the ED – Manage the septic child, the unstable GI bleed, and the patient with anaphylactic shock
• Communication skills – Practice breaking bad news, dealing with medical errors, resolving inter-professional conflict, and handling unruly or violent patients. 

 

2. Dedicated Ultrasound Rotation - a McGill Innovation:  McGill has a dedicated emergency ultrasound rotation that combines didactic and practical ultrasound training with emergency ultrasound independent practitioners (CEUS-IP). By the end of the rotation you will be a certified CEUS-IP. The EDE 1 course provided in your 1st year allows you to be proficient in using bedside ultrasound to rule out pericardial effusions, intra-abdominal fluid, aortic aneurysm, and rule in intrauterine pregnancy.

But it does not stop there. McGill is now one of the sites of the EDE 2 course. The possibilities for those who want to expand the use of ultrasound in their practice are limitless. Our physicians routinely use bedside ultrasound to assess cardiac function, volume status, diagnose pneumothorax, pulmonary edema, DVT’s, retinal detachments, as well as perform several ultrasound guided procedures such as peripheral lines, joint taps, nerve blocks, thoracentesis, and Colles reductions. There is also a new U/S elective month for advanced U/S techniques.

At McGill, you will work directly with staff experienced with ultrasound and its cutting edge applications.

 

3. Excellent EBM and Research Training:  McGill fosters an environment of academic distinction and encourages residents to push the limits of clinical knowledge in research and evidence based medicine progressively throughout the 5 years of residency:

Junior residents are offered a clinical epidemiology course and a combined ED/Journal Club month where they learn to critically appraise a peer-reviewed journal article and submit it for publication. This is in addition to the monthly Journal Club that is held in conjunction with the CCFP-EM residents and focuses on cutting edge articles and core EBM topics.

All residents will participate in a research project and are guided by research preceptors and the Emergency Medicine Residency Research Committee (EMRRC). Five months are allocated throughout the program to work on protocol development, ethics and grant applications, data analysis, and finally manuscript completion with the goal of presenting an abstract or poster at a major conference and submitting for publication to a peer reviewed journal.

Residents are strongly encouraged and remunerated to attend the major conferences (SAEM, CAEP, ACEP, AMUQ etc.) and special additional funding and support is provided for residents who present their research.

 

4. Top-notch Academic Half Days: The quality of our rounds continues to excel as we are able to attract many nationally and internationally renowned speakers. This coupled with the fact that our teaching time is protected no matter what service you are on, ensures that your knowledge base will expand every week.

We have monthly interactive sessions where we meet with staff to discuss pre-assigned chapters from Tintinalli (junior residents) and Rosen's (senior residents). By the end of your third year you will have read both texts from cover to cover.

 

5. Education Programs/Clinical Teaching Unit (CTU):  CTU is an innovative clinical rotation for senior residents to develop their skill and confidence as a clinical teacher. The resident-teacher will apply principles of learner-centered instruction and techniques for teaching in a busy clinical environment while supervising junior trainees. Through group learning activities, practical experience, and self reflection, the resident-teacher will acquire skills in interactive small group lecturing, focused instruction during case reviews, effective bedside teaching, the teaching of procedures, and giving constructive feedback.

Residents interested in health education also have the opportunity to advance their knowledge and skill set through various programs offered in conjunction with the faculties of Medicine and Education (Teachers Scholars Program, McGill Postgraduate fellowship in health Sciences Education, and a Masters of Arts in Education).

 

6. Trauma rotations abroad: There is an opportunity to experience trauma in other countries.Get to experience high volume, high intensity trauma training in cities where penetrating injury is a daily reality. As an example, some residents have gone to Groote Schuur in Cape Town, South Africa, Japan, and India amongst some of the choices.

 

7. Toxicology rotations in New York: Toxicology is one of the challenging fields in emergency medicine, and a field that truly belongs to emergentologists. And once again our program prepares you well. As a junior, you will develop a comprehensive knowledge base of Toxicology with our own dedicated rotation with Quebec toxicologists. Then, as a senior resident, you will travel to the Poison Control Center at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, one of the best in the world, at which point you will feel comfortable managing the most complex toxicology cases.

 

8. Flexible program structure/Area of Interest:  All the residents agree that one of the greatest strengths of McGill Emergency Medicine is that it is centered on residents and driven by resident needs. The administration has an open door policy eliciting residents’ opinions and the structure of the program is constantly evolving and being tailored to fit all educational requirements. In response to resident and faculty feedback, numerous rotations have been modified to become more emergency-oriented.  An example of a new recent initiative was the addition of a longitudinal Mass Gathering elective; the resident will be exposed to hands-on training in mass gathering events of various kinds (Grand Prix, IronMan, etc).

In your senior years, you have the ability to develop a niche in Emergency Medicine through the newly developed Area of Interest. Six months of your senior years are allocated for you to pursue an area of interest of your choice. If desired, these can be combined with elective time and dedicated towards a year of fellowship training. Areas of interest and fellowships for previous residents have included international health, pediatrics, wilderness medicine, aviation medicine, critical care, trauma, disaster management, EMS, toxicology, sports medicine, ultrasound, simulation medicine and education.

 

9. Brand new hospitals: There are three new emergency departments that opened in 2015: the Montreal Children's Hospital and Royal Victoria Hospital (under the same roof) and the newly built Pavilion K, housing a new ED at the Jewish General Hospital.   This will provide you with the opportunity to manage complex patients in state-of-the-art facilities. 

 

10. Excellent Staff-Resident Relationship: One of our greatest strengths, which residents all cherish, is the very relaxed and collegial relationship with the staff. You will quickly become one of the family. This will allow you to relax and focus on maximizing your learning experience, it also makes going to work so much fun. Throughout the year several social activities are organized; these include quarterly extra journal clubs at a staff's home, a famous end-of-year beach party, and an annual two-day retreat in the Laurentians with the goals of i) performing an overall program review and ii) for team building and resident wellbeing.

 

11. Montreal! Montreal! Montreal!  Montreal is a truly an amazing city.  Residency is tough and demanding; one key to success is living in a city where there is ample opportunity to unwind.  There is no other city in the world with the cultural flavour that Montreal has. Whether you are interested in art, music, theatre, history, science, sports, outdoor activities, festivals, or nightlife, Montreal has something to offer you.  You will love to live in this amazing city for 5 years!

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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.

Our focus is on the specialty of emergency medicine. We have now changed our curriculum to the new Competency-Based  model. There are 21 months dedicated to adult emergency medicine, 6.5 months to pediatric emergency, and 3 special emergency months: ED/Journal Club (year 1), ED/ultrasound (year 1),  and psychiatric ED (year 2).

There are also a total of 7 months of critical care: 3 months of ICU/CCU and 2 months of trauma (1 month at the Montreal General Hospital and 1 months abroad.)

There is a 1-month toxicology rotation at the New York Poison control centre at Bellevue Hospital Center.

Other unique rotations include: Internal medicine consults, cardiology consults, pediatric anesthesia, clinical epidemiology, clinical teaching unit (where you learn how to teach), and MSK/sports medicine, a dedicated ED/ultrasound month.

During the 5th year, residents choose an "area of interest" where they have 6 months to subspecialize and/or develop their niche within the specialty. If desired, residents can also combine elective time to these 6 months in order to complete a first year of fellowship training.

Research

A strong emphasis is placed on research where 5 months are allocated throughout the program for the resident to work on protocol development, ethics and grant applications, data analysis, and finally manuscript completion. The end goal is to be able to present an abstract or poster at a major conference (e.g. CAEP, SAEM, AMUQ) and to submit for publication to a peer reviewed journal. Residents are guided by research preceptors and the Emergency Medicine Residency Research Committee (EMRRC).

To facilitate this process, there is significant emphasis on teaching residents how to critically evaluate scientific literature and understanding the principles in developing a research project. The PGY-1 resident will complete an epidemiology/biostats course at McGill University. Journal club helps facilitate the learning of both critical appraisal and the techniques of EBM.

Seminars and Rounds

Rounds occur every Wednesday morning from 8:30 to noon. This is protected time for all residents. There are guest speakers, staff presenters, "theme" days, M&M rounds, and all residents are expected to present a cutting edge grand rounds topic during the year. The junior residents participate in an annual CPC competition to present interesting cases. In addition, many sessions will be held at the McGill Simulation Centre.

The 3rd Wednesday of each period there is a staff-guided interactive study session in the afternoon after rounds. There are "Junior" Interactive Sessions during the first year which are based on Tintinalli's "Study Guide". In the next two years, "Senior" Interactive Sessions will be based on Rosen's Emergency Medicine textbook and articles from the literature. During their fourth year, they will concentrate their knowledge on reviewing Tintinalli’s/ Rosen’s for their FRCP exam.

A new initiative started in the last two years is Resus-Hour: divided between junior and senior residents, the groups run through cutting-edge simulations guided by staff.

Journal Club is held monthly during our Academic half days. 

Senior residents have oral exam preparation sessions for the last 6 months of their PGY4, organized by the Attending Staff. As well, given the number of residents graduating, study groups are formed by the residents every year.

Medical Administration

This rotation is held either in the R3 or R4 year.  Regular seminars are held. Residents also work in the ED focusing on the management of flow and patient throughput. Residents are also expected to join one of several departmental committees that convene regularly throughout the year. Finally, the aspect of M+M is introduced as residents are given specific cases to investigate and present at rounds.  Time for these activities is compensated by decreasing the number of shifts on ED rotations.

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Training Sites

Resources

R1 - R5

McGill University health Centre: 

Royal Victoria Hospital, new state of the art tertiary care center managing complex cases including transplant, oncology and cardiac cases.

Montreal General Hospital, a level 1 trauma center with dedicated trauma team and Trauma Team Leaders, many of whom are ED staff.

Montreal Neurological Institute, the Neuro, a world-leading destination for brain research and advanced patient care.

Montreal Children's Hospital, a tertiary care pediatric center with a large volume of patients 

Sir Mortimer B. Davis -Jewish General Hospital, a brand new Pavillion K housing a beautiful new ED with a very multicultural patient population. 

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Additional Information

If you have any questions about the program, I invite you to browse our website at www.mcgill.ca/emergency