Frequently Asked Questions

What is the structure of your neurorehabilitation unit?

The Tertiary NeuroRehabilitation (TNR) unit is located in Foothills Medical Centre and houses 50 inpatient rehabilitation beds. This includes brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke and general neurorehabilitation patients. Hospitalists are the most responsible physicians for inpatients, and the physiatrists are consultants who round on patients several times per week and lead weekly interdisciplinary rounds and family conferences.

Because our unit is directly integrated into the acute care hospital, for each of brain injury, spinal cord injury and stroke there is both an inpatient TNR physiatry consultant (who rounds on and oversees rehabilitation for TNR patients), and an inpatient consult service physiatrist (who sees all new and ongoing patients for potential inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation).

What is it like to be on-call in UofC PM&R?

When physiatrists are on-call, they are only on home call for TNR inpatients (all inpatient consults and emergency room calls are deferred to the daytime services). Residents are first call via home-call for all ward issues, and have a staff back-up for second call.

Residents are required to go in and round on the weekends for both Saturday, Sunday and any holidays to check on patients in person. During weeknights, call for TNR is from 5pm - 8am. Residents may have to go in to see patients overnight for acute medical issues. If a resident is in-house beyond 12am, they may take a post-call day the next day.

Residents may be on call a maximum of 9 times per month. The call schedule is organized by the lead residents, and the majority of residents are on-call between 4-7 times per month.

What are the duties of your lead residents?

Lead residents are self-selected by the resident group but typically consists of two co-leads in PGY-3. This includes organizing the call schedule, corresponding with medical students interested in our program, mediating all resident concerns and communicate with the program director on a regular basis. There are additional duties such as safety committees, helping with CaRMS and attending residency program committee meetings & division meetings, but these are shared among the PGY-4 and PGY-5 residents as well.

Does the resident group have autonomy in driving their residency experience?

Yes - our program encourages residents to self-direct their resident experience as possible while also ensuring adequate support. This includes individual residents selecting and organizing clinics & consults rotations to their areas of interest, and arranging longitudinal research experiences. The group as a whole self-directs their non-clinical endeavours including medical education & research initiatives with support. 

How much funding do residents receive in the program?

All residents receive $2000 per year towards work-related expenses such as textbooks, learning resources, conference funding and technology. There is additional funding to attend one Canadian Comprehensive Review Course prior to writing the Royal College licensing examination.

How is resident health and wellness addressed?

All residents are provided with an academic advisor (a staff physiatrist working in the resident's area of interest) and a senior resident mentor. Residents meet with their advisors at least once every 3 months and with their mentors at least twice a year to ensure they are doing well, with funding for these meetings.

There is a wellness curriculum in our program with 17 topics to help address resident wellness. One half day every 6-8 weeks is blocked off for personal wellness time. Finally, there is funding for resident wellness including 2 resident retreats and 2 mentorship meetings per year.

Are residents equipped upon graduation to do procedures or practice in special areas of physiatry?

Yes. There is ample time to complete EMG training required to challenge and successfully pass the EMG licensing exam. 9 of our 10 most recent graduates have passed the licensing exam without issue at the end of their PGY-5 year without difficulty (the one other graduate did not write as EMG was not part of their eventual clinical practice). Approximately 40-50% of our graduates choose to challenge the CASEM sports medicine licensing exam, and all have passed successfully. Finally, all residents interested in image-guided interventions have ample exposure to gain experience and competence in performing these procedures upon finishing their residency.

Are there opportunities for rural physiatry exposure?

Yes - we have physiatrists working in smaller areas outside of the city of Calgary including in Lacombe, Red Deer and Lethbridge with a mix of general physiatry including inpatient and outpatient clinical work. Exposures to these areas can be arranged during the PGY-3 to PGY-5 years via electives, with funding from the Post-Graduate office for accommodations in rural areas.

Are there opportunities for international electives?

Yes - we have staff who have trained throughout the U.S. and have contacts with physiatrists in various areas across the globe. It is important to note that international work in physiatry is often a very small part of one's work and residency training aside from fellowships, and thus it is not commonly a core component of our PM&R residency program, but can be explored if it meets a trainee's career goals.