McMaster University

Program Highlights

Type of curriculum: Block + integration  (half days back to primary family clinic when off-service)

PGY1: 4 blocks of FM, 2 blocks of care of the hospitalized adult, 2 blocks

of EM, 2 blocks of women's health and OB, 2 blocks of peds, 1 block of

FM/academic programming,

PGY2: 4 blocks of FM, 2 blocks of rural FM, 2 blocks of core

medicine/surgery, 1 block of Care of the Elderly, 3 blocks of electives, 1

block of FM/academic programming

Unique features:

• Family Practice Anesthesia

  • Robust family practice anesthesia group providing anesthesia and call services at the hospital 

  • Opportunities to practice in various clinical settings, ensuring a well-rounded skill set.

• Emergency Medicine

  • High-paced ER environment with a diverse case mix due to proximity to Blue Mountain.

  • Residents develop strong Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) skills, essential for rapid diagnosis and management.

  • Full-time casting technician on staff that is eager to teach and share their skill set, reflecting the high volume of injury-related cases.

• Hospice and Palliative Care

  • A strong hospice that was created with family physician collaboration in response to community needs.

  • Many physicians are involved in caring for their own end-of-life patients, offering continuity and comprehensive care with palliative physicians available in a consultant and collaborate role

• Neonatal Care Opportunities 

  • Although the closest pediatric care rotation is in Owen Sound, the Collingwood hospital boasts a novel opportunity in the role of ‘baby doc’ care where family physicians take lead on newborn care roster to cover neonatal emergencies

• Primary Clinic Locations 

  • Residents have the opportunity to be placed in numerous communities for their primary clinic

Scholarly activities:

All residents gain core competencies in research via the InQuiry Curriculum

Additional research opportunities beyond the core curriculum

PGY3 enhanced skills opportunities in research and scholarship 

Course funding:

Salary and benefits determined by PARO - 4 weeks of paid vacation, 17-35 of pregnancy/parental leave top-up, dental/extended health coverage

Community Highlights

Recreation:

Four season recreation: water sports on Georgian Bay, numerous ski

resorts, extensive cycling routes, Nordic skiing, & sailing. Many parks and trails throughout the region.

Cultural notes:

Strong artist community including numerous galleries, museums and local theatre; growing community with many job

opportunities.

Cost of living:

Average price of 1 bedroom apartment between $1520 - $2200

Resident Testimonial

I have love love loved my time in Collingwood. It is a small enough hospital/medical community that it is easy to get to know your fellow physicians in town and really feel part of a community. Even though our residency group in town is only 3 per year (so total of six at any given time), we get together a lot with the Owen Sound residents

(2/year so total 4 at any given time) and Mount Forest residents (2/year so total 4 at any given time). So we really feel like more of a group of 14 and even 24 when we get the opportunity to get together with the "rural south" - Grimsby/Fergus/Simcoe residents, for SIM, conferences, etc! It has also been a great place to get involved in the community - we have partnered with the local youth centre to do monthly workshops spotlighting healthcare careers and teaching them hands-on skills (casting, suturing, etc), which has been a ton of fun. I have loved that

we get to spend so much time in our home community (very little travel out for mandatory rotations) so it is easier to get involved. It is also just a super fun place to live - always lots to do no matter the season (kayaking, biking, snowshoeing, snowboarding, and more!) and lots of people willing to show you local spots, etc! The biggest surprise for me was just how kind and friendly the hospital is (always a shock after leaving a teaching hospital environment!) and how excited our staff are to teach. I have been called down from a hospitalist shift to emerg just to see a really interesting MSK finding in the department - and then gone back upstairs to continue about my day! Our staff are very invested in helping us become well rounded and efficient rural generalists, and go out of their way to teach.

1. On average, how much travel is required in this stream? (i.e. are you based on one community, or do you travel based on rotations, teaching, etc.)

Not a ton - we are able to do all of our mandatory requirements at our site other than 1 block each in both PGY1 (Peds in Owen Sound) and PGY2 (Care of the Elderly in Orillia). Otherwise everything is done at CGMH and academic days are also hosted here so the only travel required is over to the ROMP building to see your pals!

2. What is the breadth/scope of family medicine in this program? Does your program's teaching emphasize particular rural skills (e.g. obstetrics, emergency medicine, mental health, etc.)?

I think our program specifically emphasizes ER skills - on family medicine blocks we're expected to do 1 ER shift/week. In addition to that, all of our preceptors look after their own inpatients and some do hospitalist shifts as well. There are opportunities to get more involved in obstetrics and mental health but would require some initiative by the resident.

3. What do you do for fun in your community?

Snowboarding, snowshoeing, kayaking, hiking, biking, swimming in the Bay - there's so much to do! Also my preceptor taught me how to cross country ski last year.

4. What is the cost of living in the area where your program is primarily located?

It can be quite expensive - many monthly rentals are $2000/month for 1-2bdrms. I found an apartment about 20 minutes drive away from my office/hospital in Thornbury for ~$1200/month. There are cheaper options but require deep digging.

5. Do you have the option to travel for electives? If yes, where have you gone? Can you provide some examples?

Totally! We have a great relationship with ROMP and NOSM and several of my colleagues have gone to Marathon, Sioux Lookout etc for electives. We also have great relationships with the smaller Grey-Bruce sites - I am doing two months in Walkerton/Hanover. I also think we are able to benefit from connections

with the MAC-CARE regions - I did a month of obstetrics in KW and had a great time with high volumes.

6. What is the scope of practice of other specialties or rotations in this program? Do these specialties have their own residents or only family residents that rotate through?

CGMH has 4 OBGYNs, 4 orthopedic surgeons, a rotating group of consulting internists, and 2 general surgeons. We do not have any pediatrics or geriatrics in town. We have 1 psychiatrist. The OBGYNs occasionally have an OB resident with them, and one of the general surgeons always has an upper year gen surg resident and/or a PA student etc. Typically however our site is 90-100% family med residents at any given time.

7. Can you briefly describe what the research portion of your program entails?

We have to do a quality improvement project over the 2 years of our choosing. There is a lot of flexibility in what the topic is and we have good support through one of the local internists and a local family doc. You can work in small groups or solo.

8. Are there opportunities for extra training? (i.e. SIM, conferences, etc.)

We do SIM at least 2x/year with the whole rural stream, and the program is working on incorporating more opportunities for other courses. We are currently piloting a program of training residents in NRP and buddying them up with staff on the Acute Care of the Newborn call rotation - we do not have peds in the community so family docs respond to code pinks.

9. What makes this program unique? What drew you to it?

What drew me to this program is its ability to balance training rural generalists with the mandatory requirements of family medicine programs. Often rural residents can end up with great "home base" communities but do have to leave a fair amount to complete the mandatory rotations of peds, OB, internal, etc as their community does not have the specialist support to provide these rotations. CGMH is still a family

doc run hospital, but has enough specialists to support training us at our home base. I also think its unique in its ability to maintain community with several surrounding residency sites. There are a ton of great rural residency programs out there, but that's what made it a good fit for me!

10. Is there anything you would change about this program?

I wish we had more obstetrics volumes/more opportunities for family docs to do primary care OB. There are about 500 births/year at CGMH, but due to having 4 OB/GYNs who do primary care obstetrics in addition to an excellent community of midwives, there is not a ton of room for family doc OB.