Overall

We are a program of close-knit, open-minded residents and faculty, providing a warm and enjoyable interpersonal and professional experience.

Very accessible faculty, most of whom have offices on the same floor close to each other – great for networking!

Excellent mentoring and career counselling: early recognition and support of residents in difficulty; individual attention in all rotations; close, personal relationship between residents and staff. Attending staff are very supportive and committed to resident learning and success.

Excellent faculty-to-trainee ratio (15 residents, 17 staff) and lack of clinical fellows in MFM, Urogyne, Gyne Onc provides immense opportunity for hands-on learning.

Strong experience with, and leadership in, Competency-based Medical Education (CBME): this will be our 8th year which means all our residents will be CBME residents. Queen’s OBGYN faculty were leaders in CBD development at the Royal College.

Cohesive, functional, responsive program with an excellent reputation & track record!

Clinical

90% of activities are located at a single site (Kingston General Hospital), with some outpatient OR and some specialty clinics occurring at Hotel Dieu Hospital and Lennox & Addington County General Hospital (in Napanee – 40 mins from downtown Kingston).

Labour & Delivery, NICU, post-op ward and outpatient clinics are all located on a single floor, making it very efficient to circulate around.

Unique transgender clinic; multi-disciplinary Women’s Bleeding Disorder clinic.

Early surgical exposure. Early autonomous experience as on-call resident as there is one resident on-call at night in hospital (with back up second on-call): you get to be in the thick of it early, right away in your first year! But don’t worry, staff is only a door away and very supportive and responsive.

Calls: mole system Monday-Fridays: nights only, no days. On weekends, no consecutive 24h call!

Strong subspecialty exposure; strong MIS program; robotic surgery available in gynecology oncology.

Educational

• Fantastic simulation opportunities!
• Protected academic half day (staff takes all your pagers during these 3 hours!)
• Generous support for conferences (contingent on achievement of research milestones).
• Multiple educational rounds (4-5 hours per week, in addition to academic half day).
• Monthly Journal Clubs.

Strong examination preparation: yearly formative OSCE and yearly formal OSCE run as close as possible to Royal College format; participation in CREOG and the National Canadian Examination (formally called APOG) preparatory examinations; once R5, weekly oral exams, plus Departmental support for R5 to attend the Canadian OBGYN Review Program review course.

Research

Strong support for independent research project: in house statistician/methodologist; many faculty with MSc in Clinical

Epidemiology. We have some phenomenal CIHR-funding researchers at Queen’s in MFM, REI, and MIS, including Women’s Health Clinical Mentorship Grant for projects pairing our residents to superb mentors.

All residents attend the Queen’s University Research Course, supported by the Department.

Expectation to complete at least one research project, either with collection of original data, or a quality assurance project. Both can receive generous support to attend national meetings for dissemination.

Opportunity to complete a Master Degree of one’s choice through the Clinical Investigator Program (CIP).

Kingston’s Beauty!

Family-friendly city with a great waterfront and bustling tourism; great water sports and cycling. Plenty of restaurants, cafés, and bars, serving excellent and diverse food and drink.

Well-established sports, music, and arts scene, including festivals, shows, and concerts (check out Leon’s Centre Stadium, the Tett Centre and the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, among other great venues).

Access to places of prayer of many creeds: mosque, synagogue, most Christian denominations (Catholic, Protestants, Orthodox etc). Furthermore, Queen’s University has an active indigenous community found in the Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre as well as an Office of Indigenous Initiatives.

Short commuting times (most walk or cycle to work and school); lower cost of living; within easy reach of Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto.

Close proximity to numerous beautiful leisure destinations (Prince Edward County/Sandbanks Provincial Park – and their wines and beaches! Thousand Islands, Rideau Canal – a designated UNESCO world heritage centre!)

Enjoy the great outdoors! Hiking (Rock Dunder), sailing and stand-up paddling (Lake Ontario), canoeing and kayaking, and camping in Provincial Parks (Frontenac Provincial Park, Bon Echo Provincial Park, Charleston Lake Provincial Park among others).