The Queen’s University Geriatric Psychiatry program offer a 2-year Royal College (RC) accredited residency program. The program adheres to the Royal College Competence by Design Model (CBD) for Geriatric Psychiatry, and the curriculum is organized around four graduated stages of training defined by the RC’s competence continuum including 1) Transition to Discipline, 2) Foundations of Discipline, 3) Core of Discipline, and 4) Transition to Practice. The stage-specific organization of the curriculum ensures that residents have an increasing level of professional responsibility as they demonstrate entrustment of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs).

Our program is notable as the first Geriatric Psychiatry program in the country to have implemented a competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum and training program since 2018. In July 2021 all Geriatric Psychiatry programs were transitioned to CBD, the Royal College framework of CBME. At Queen’s, we piloted the Royal College Geriatric Psychiatry EPAs in the 2020 academic year which has allowed us to trouble shoot challenges with the online educational platform, refine assessments, strategically design the rotation schedule in order to best achieve the EPAs, incorporate resident input, and engage in continuous quality improvement of the program.

Training is tailored to suit the residents’ learning objectives, with protected time to meet the residents’ educational needs in addition to their clinical activities within the framework of the Royal College training requirements.

Clinical Highlights:

Some strengths of the clinical training our program provides include the opportunity for the residents to work with richly collaborative multidisciplinary teams across different clinical settings, including the inpatient specialized dementia unit, outreach and outpatient teams, and the consultation liaison team. Our teams provide clinical services to a large catchment area allowing for exposure to outreach visits in both urban and rural settings. Providence Care Hospital, the primary hospital out of which our division operates, is a unique hospital that was built in 2017 and amalgamated the physical rehabilitation site and mental health services site. This has led to close collaboration with the various rehabilitation units, including Geriatric Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Palliative Care, and Complex Care, further leading to exposure to unique and complex clinical presentations to enrich the residents’ learning. Further, there is opportunity for the resident to undertake both discrete and longitudinal elective experiences to complement their training, for example electives in Addictions, Neurology, Palliative Care, Sleep Medicine, and others.

Resident support:

The Program Director has an open-door policy in addition to formally meeting with the residents on a regularly scheduled basis, both individually and as a group.

There is an emphasis on resident wellness and safety, which is a topic discussed at each RPC, as well as individually with residents.

Each resident is assigned an academic advisor who meets with the resident regularly to monitor progress, review their electronic portfolio, and mentor the resident to ensure their success in CBD and their training.