The orthopedic surgery residency at Memorial University is a five year training program.
The Surgical Foundations program is completed during the PGY1 and PGY2 years and transitioned to a Competency by Design cirriculum in July 2018. More information about Surgical Foundations at Memorial University can be found here: https://www.mun.ca/medicine/surgery/programs/postgraduate/surgical-foundations/
As of July 2020, our orthopedic training program also transitioned to a Competency by Design (CBD) cirriculum:
https://www.mun.ca/medicine/surgery/programs/postgraduate/orthopedic-surgery-residency-program/
In addition to off-service rotations that are meant to augment the trainee’s experience and knowledge of non-musculoskeletal care, the first two years includes 8 months on the home orthopedic service in each of the first two years.
The final three years of the program are completed in orthopedic rotations at the Health Sciences Centre, St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital and the Janeway Children's Health and Rehabilitation Centre in St. John's, NL. There is also a three month community rotation (PGY3) which can be completed in either Corner Brook or Gander or at an approved community hospital outside the province.
The Health Sciences Centre and St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital provide general orthopedic training; however, each site has subspecialty orientation. Residents are site and preceptor based and work in all subspecialties of orthopedics while on service: trauma, arthroplasty, muscoluskeletal oncology, upper extremity, hand and wrist, foot and ankle, and spine. Additionally, there are 3 months of neurosurgery - spine focus (PGY2), 3 months of plastic surgery - hand and soft tissue injury focus (PGY3), and 6 months of pediatric orthopedics which is completed at the Janeway Children's Health and Rehabilitation Centre (3 months each in PGY4 and 5).
All our trainees, including Canadian and international medical graduates, are admitted through the CaRMS process (https://www.carms.ca). We accept 2-3 residents per year for a total of 13-15 residents in the program at a time.
Teaching sessions are both didactic and conference-format and occur three-times weekly in the morning. These sessions are based on an annual or biennial schedule and cover the breadth of the FRCSC knowledge base. Also in the programming are fall cadaveric anatomy sessions, bi-monthly journal club, OSCE-format progress exams, and summer ortho boot camp.
Being a smaller program, our surgeons are generalists with subspecialty interests. As such, the resident experience is longitudinal, which helps achieve our goal of producing well-rounded and competent orthopaedic surgeons. The small group allows excellent professional relationships to develop; residents are not lost in the crowd.
We have an active and expanding research program that provides residents not only to fulfill their Royal College requirements for scholarly activity, but to make a meaningful contribution to orthopedic knowledge. Highlights include a close medical community that promotes idea sharing and a full-time research nurse. There is a generous amount of funding available for resident academic activity.
Our division has an excellent relationship with the Clinical Epidemiology program at Memorial University's Faculty of Medicine, which offers both a diploma and Master's option. A number of our residents have pursued these options and our clinical faculty are encouraging to those who do.