Medical Students

Welcome to your core rotation or elective with Adult Cardiology! We hope you have a great learning experience during your time with us.

A. Orientation

Please review the information in the Orientation folder prior to starting this rotation including reading this document. All Cardiology services are located on Level 5 of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and a map is available in the orientation folder.

Orientation is scheduled for the first Monday of each block from 7:30 - 8:00 am in room 4A9.016 Maz unless otherwise stated with one of the Cardiology Lead Residents. A calendar invitation with this information will be sent to you. Following orientation, trainees are to report directly to their assigned service where they may have an on-site orientation with the Cardiology Senior Resident or Attending Physician.

If your first day with Cardiology will be on a date that is not listed above, please see your welcome email for information specific to your start date. There are two possible instructions you may receive:

• Option 1: Attend a teaching session from 8:00 - 9:00 am. Following the session, report directly to your assigned service

• Option 2: If there is no teaching session scheduled, report directly to your assigned service at 8:00 am.

Students can review the most recent recording of the orientation in the Orientation folder.

If you will be absent on your first scheduled day with Cardiology, please notify the Cardiology Program Coordinator at mecardjr@ualberta.ca.

Please use the information below to determine where to report on your first day:

• Ward 5A5: report to Ward 5A5 - staff is usually found near the WMC end of 5A5/6 in the open area behind the front desk

• Ward 5A6: report to the Ward 5A6 workroom (CICU end of 5A5/6)

• Consults: report to the Ward 5A6 workroom

B. Teaching and Presentation Sessions

For a standard block with no holidays, the teaching schedule is as follows

If a Named Holiday falls on a weekday, any teaching session or rounds originally scheduled for that day will be rescheduled or cancelled.

Cardiology topic teaching is held in person on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00 - 9:00 am in 4A9.016 Maz unless otherwise indicated in the Google calendar invitation. A Cardiology senior resident hosts the teaching session which includes topics such as ECG, ACLS, HF, etc. These sessions are recorded when held virtually and recordings can be found in the 2024-2025 Recordings folder.

The Division of Cardiology hosts Grand Rounds every Wednesday between September through June from 8:00 - 9:00 am. Rounds are usually held as a hybrid event with both in person and virtual attendance options. An email invitation from the Divison will be forwarded to trainees for each scheduled session. Rounds are recorded when possible and the recordings can be found in the 2024-2025 Recordings folder.

Junior presentations are held in person in 4A9.016 Maz on two Mondays of the block from 8:00 - 9:00 am. In blocks that do not have a Named Holiday, presentations are held on the last two Mondays. In blocks with a Named Holiday, the timing of the Monday presentations depends on the timing of the holiday. All junior residents are asked to give a short 8 - 10 minute presentation for their peers about a Cardiology topic of their choice. More information is provided by the Cardiology Lead Residents during orientation and by email during the first week of the block. Presentations are not recorded. The location and time may change; check the Google calendar invitation.

A code simulation session is scheduled for trainees on one Friday afternoon each block. The session is held in 5A7 CICU from 1:00 - 3:00 pm. Trainees are asked to arrive by 12:45 pm for a pre-simulation briefing session.

The Division of Cardiology hosts virtual Educational Case Rounds on the last Friday of each block from 12:00 - 1:00 pm. An email invitation from the Division will be forwarded to residents during the week of the session. Medical students are excused. Educational Case Rounds are not recorded.

The Department of Medicine (DoM) hosts Grand Rounds every Friday between September through June from 8:00 - 9:00 am. Rounds are usually held as a hybrid event with both in person and virtual attendance options. An email invitation from the Department will be forwarded to trainees for each scheduled session. Rounds are recorded when possible and the recordings are available on the DoM website.

The Weekly Academic Schedule is distributed by the Cardiology Lead Residents via email each week. Here is a link to the weekly academic schedule. 

C. Rotation Schedule 

Medical students joining UAH Adult Cardiology for a 2-week MED556 core option rotation are usually scheduled for one week on 2 weeks of Ward, or Inpatient Consults and at least one clinic with a Cardiology staff physician.

Medical students joining UAH Adult Cardiology for an elective are usually accepted for a two-week rotation and scheduled for one week on each of Ward and Inpatient Consults. Shorter or longer electives and electives that include clinics are also available by request.

Medical students are never scheduled for Triage or CVICU..

Medical students receive their service schedules in their orientation email. Student schedules are also noted on the contact and information page of the resident call schedule. 

All absences need to submitted and approved through Cally.  In addition to this, medical students are responsible for communicating any approved absences from service to the Cardiology Program Coordinator (mecardjr@ualberta.ca), the Cardiology Attending staff physician on your service, and if applicable the Cardiology senior resident on your service. The Program Coordinator notes all absences in the resident call schedule.

The most current and accurate schedule information for both Attending staff and senior residents is available in ROCA. See the ROCA folder for instructions regarding how to search ROCA. Attending staff schedules can also be found in the Preceptor Schedules folder and staff email addresses are in the Contact List folder. Cardiology senior resident schedules and contact information are also listed in the call schedule.

Ward/Consults)

For Ward 5A5, the Attending Physician is listed as the first contact for Switchboard during the day on weekdays. Trainees on the Ward 5A5 service are to assist the Attending as required. 

During weekday daytimes (M - F 0800 - 1600 hrs), there are Cardiology residents on rotation with each of the Ward 5A6 and Inpatient Consults services. The Cardiology residents are listed as first contact for Switchboard for these services and the Attending Physician is listed as second contact. The Cardiology resident may be absent on: a) Tuesday afternoons during their AHD, b) Thursday afternoons during their resident clinic, or c) any weekday due to being post-call. When the Cardiology resident is absent, the Attending Physician is listed as first contact for Switchboard.

5. Medical Students on Call

Medical students do not have any call commitments this rotation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What should I wear?

A: Trainees typically wear scrubs which has become the standard attire since the start of the pandemic. Business casual is an option, but not required. Scrubs can be picked up in CICU 5A7. After walking onto the unit, immediately turn left at bed 1 and after the blanket warmer there is an alcove on the lefthand side containing scrubs.

See AHS documents Staff Tips: COVID-19 Personal Clothing and Cleaning Services, Healthcare Attire: Scrubs and Uniforms, and FAQ. Also be prepared to follow the AHS Enhanced Masking and Eye Protection policies (Memo). See:

• Enhanced masking Guidance and Tips

• Eye protection Memo and Recommendation for Reuse

Q: Where are the bathrooms? 

A: On the Ward, there are two washrooms in the hallway that splits 5A5 from 5A6. The code for all washrooms is 1562*. 

Q: Where can I store my belongings during the day?

A: Trainees can leave belongings in their unit workroom (“bubble”) and there is a fridge available for food storage in the nursing lounge (code 1562*). Please note the unit workrooms are not locked.  There are also 60 lockers for medical students available on level 0 of WMC.  To access these lockers, please email the MD program on ume16@ualberta.ca

If you are ill:

1. Please submit an absence request through Cally.  In addition to this, please notify the MED556 clerkship coordinator (me556ume@ualberta.ca), the Cardiology Program Coordinator (mecardjr@ualberta.ca), the attending physician and Cardiology senior resident (if applicable) for your current service. Contact information for attendings and seniors is available on the Schedules page in the Preceptor Schedules sections and the Block Quick Reference folder on the UAH Cardiology Rotation Google Shared Drive.

2. Review the AHS Fit for Work guidelines.

D. Resources  :

a) Review the current Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) guidelines available here: https://www.ccs.ca/en/guidelines/guidelines-library. Particular guidelines to focus on are:

• Atrial Fibrillation

• Heart Failure

• STEMI 

CCS has a guidelines app called iCCS you may wish to consider downloading:

• Google Play Store

• Apple Store

b) Review the current AHS PPE guidelines. In particular, review the PPE donning and doffing information under the heading PPE Basics.

c) Additional Resources

• Read the “Cardiovascular Medicine” chapter in the book Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (see the Reading Materials folder on the Shared Drive for a PDF version)

• Review cardiology topics using the free Cardio Guide website: https://www.cardioguide.ca/

• Practice reading and interpreting ECGs using free tools such as found on the sites: http://ecgmadesimple.com/, https://ecg.bidmc.harvard.edu/maven/mavenmain.asp, https://ecg.utah.edu/, and https://litfl.com/ecg-library/

• Practice reading and interpreting ECGs online at https://www.acadoodle.com/. This is a paid subscription service that is recommended by the Cardiology residents

• Watch free cardiology videos on the OnlineMedEd website: https://onlinemeded.org/spa/cardiology. The site offers other educational materials that can be accessed with a paid subscription

• ESC (https://www.escardio.org/Education) and Medmastery (https://www.medmastery.com/course-library) offer  cardiology courses and learning tools with paid subscriptions

• Medmastery course handbooks, workbooks, and cheat sheets are saved as PDFs in the Medmastery folder on the Shared Drive. Feel free to read and download any of these

• Medtronic has a free virtual ECG Club on the fourth Tuesday of each month

• If you are interested in pursuing subspecialty training in Adult Cardiology, the primary recommended textbook is Cardiology: A Practical Handbook. Other recommended textbooks include The ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine.ECG textbooks include Rapid Interpretation of EKG’s, The Only EKG Book You’ll Ever Need, and 12-Lead ECG: The Art of Interpretation

• Watch recordings of U of C Cardiac Sciences Grand Rounds on YouTube