Program Overview

Saskatchewan’s Royal College Emergency Medicine training program is run through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and has its main training site in Saskatoon and its distributed site in Regina. Founded in July 2011, we currently have 24 residents across all years of training and have graduated 32 specialists from the program, with 21 of those 32 graduates still working in Saskatchewan.

New Training Position in Regina

In 2023 we expanded to include Regina as a distributed training site and currently have 7 residents based at this site, and 15 residents based in Saskatoon. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a growing program. The small size also provides opportunities for more longitudinal one on one mentorship and more procedural opportunities.

Distributed Learning

The College of Medicine, while physically located in Saskatoon, is a provincial resource in attitude and in practice. Postgraduate medical education at the University of Saskatchewan takes seriously its role in supporting quality health care to all people of the province. This means training physicians to meet the needs of, not only urban populations, but also those of rural and remote populations. In so doing, the College of Medicine has developed, and continues to develop, rotations in Saskatoon, Regina, and other communities. These rotations are designed to provide educational experiences to enhance the resident’s knowledge and skills and take maximum advantage of unique educational opportunities in a diversity of communities. All postgraduate programs are expected to develop and incorporate into their curriculum rotations in communities other than their primary training site of Saskatoon or Regina. The way each program does this is not strictly prescribed by the College of Medicine – but is determined by the Residency Program Committee, taking into consideration the needs of their residents, and the excellent opportunities available in other locations. These rotations continue to evolve as we seek to build stronger and better programs. For our program, residents complete at least one block at a regional centre (North Battleford, Prince Albert, Swift Current or Moose Jaw) with opportunities being available for more blocks at the resident’s request.

Extensive support is available for rotations completed at other sites in the province. The exact nature of this support varies with location and program. The communities involved, individual programs, the College of Medicine, and the Ministry of Health work collaboratively to ensure residents are not financially disadvantaged by the need to relocate. Temporary housing is available at no expense to residents who leave their home site to complete short term mandatory rotations at distributed sites in Saskatchewan. Please review the PGME Housing Guidelines for more detailed information.

As we enter our third year of having a Regina distributed site, we continue to ensure that as much training is completed in Regina as possible to minimize the need to unnecessary travel to Saskatoon, thereby ensuring greater stability for the residents based in Regina. At a minimum, residents in the Regina Royal College EM Residency Program should plan to complete the following rotations in Saskatoon:

• 5 blocks of Emergency Medicine (PGY-1, 2, 3 & 5 (twice))
• 1 block of Toxicology in Calgary or New York (PGY-3)
• 1 block of Regional/Rural Emergency Medicine at their site of choice (PGY-4)
• 1 block of Ortho (PGY-1)
• 1 block of Plastics (PGY-1)
• 2 blocks of Paediatric EM (PGY-1, 3)
• 1 block of PICU (PGY-4)

As Regina grows in its capacity to accommodate learners in the above noted rotations, Regina-based residents will complete increasingly more rotations in Regina and spend less time working at other sites.