Streams and Training Templates

Nunavut

Stream Lead: Dr. Patrick Foucault

The Nunavut Stream is the perfect match for candidates who wish to pursue rural and remote family medicine training in Nunavut!

Residents will have the opportunity to train in Iqaluit, Nunavut (NunaFam). This training opportunity will involve first and second year rotations in Newfoundland and Labrador and/or New Brunswick, with a six-month remote family medicine experience in Nunavut in the second year. It is well suited to self-directed learners who intend to practice in rural or remote Canada, particularly with Indigenous or Inuit populations.

In first year, residents complete the majority of their clinical experiences in St. John’s. All obstetrics/gynecology, surgery and some internal medicine clinical experiences are completed in rural areas across NL and/or NB. Residents complete integrated family medicine and care of the elderly training over the course of the first year (spread over six months). All other first year clinical experiences are of 1-3 months in duration.

In second year, residents complete six months of rural family medicine clinical experiences in Nunavut. The remainder of the second year, clinical experiences will be based out of the Eastern Stream and/or sites in New Brunswick. The urban family medicine clinical experiences are completed in and around St. John’s. Palliative care and orthopedic surgery clinical experiences are completed either in St. John’s or in rural locations across Newfoundland and/or in New Brunswick.

The NunaFam program offers unique opportunities in rural andremote family medicine training. It includes visits to nurse-staffed health centres in smaller communities in the Qikiqtani region of Nunavut, and training with skilled generalist family physicians. Trainees will have many opportunities to practice procedural skills and hone their clinical skills while working in a remote, resource limited context. Specific opportunities may include: family medicine clinics, medevacs, obstetrics, telemedicine ER, TB programs, corrections and reproductive care.

Residents will develop competence in all areas of family medicine, and gain exposure to some of the unique individual and population health challenges of northern Canada, while working in communities where the majority of the population are Inuit. The six month Nunavut component of this stream places an emphasis on expanding the understanding of the role of a family physician as a health advocate, as well as the impact of the social determinants of health on individuals and communities.

Program Highlights

The residency training program in family medicine at Memorial is an accredited residency training program through the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). It leads to eligibility to sit the certification exam of the CFPC. This program uses the unique medical, geographic and cultural characteristics of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Nunavut to train family physicians for rural/remote practice. 

Why Memorial?

There are many reasons to come to Memorial for Family Medicine training! To name a few:

• Urban, rural and remote training opportunities
• Often you are the only resident on service
• Tailored teaching given low learner to preceptor numbers
• Excellent learning opportunities
• Travel to and from training sites for core training is covered
• Dedicated preceptors
• Four weeks of vacation per year
• $1000 towards conference leave or ATLS course completion

What Are Our Unique Learning Opportunities?

• Training is offered in urban, rural and remote communities
• Remote opportunities in Goose Bay, NL or Iqaluit, NU
• Flight medicine in Goose Bay or Iqaluit
• Transfer medicine across many training sites
• Point of Care Ultrasound Training (PoCUS) when available.
• Certification in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Advances in Labour and Risk Management (ALARM), Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP), Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training is offered, when possible
• ACLS is offered through Eastern Health at a reduced rate. The Family Medicine Residency Training Program covers the cost of ALARM and NRP. Residents are provided with $1000 towards conference leave or ATLS course completion
• Stunning landscape
• Outdoor activities across all training sites
• Vibrant arts scene — culture, music, dance, film
  

Please refer to the Curriculum and Information sections.

Do we have an urban stream?

While we don’t have an ‘urban’ stream, our eastern training stream provides the vast majority of training in our urban center — St. John’s, NL. Please see the Eastern Stream information.

Training Templates?

• Once matched into a training stream, residents receive a list of choices that are centered around that stream.
• All residents matched to the stream rank their template preferences and indicate any special considerations that should be taken into account.
• The training streams allow residents to move to an area of the province and complete the vast majority of their training locally.
• Residents will travel outside of their training stream if a learning experience is not available locally.
• Templates that are based around program streams have resulted in much less resident travel!

Do we have any Enhanced Skills programs?

Residency positions are contingent on funding, but normally the following 12 month positions are available within the Enhanced Skills programs:

• Emergency Medicine – 4-6 positions per year
• Care of the Elderly – 1  position per year
• Care of Underserved Populations – 1 position per year