Welcome to Queen’s Urology! Here’s why you should consider our program…

A small program with a nurturing atmosphere

A major highlight of the Queen’s urology program is the close, collegial relationships among staff and residents. Our smaller community draws us together; we work together in a single hospital system without the “pinball” effect of scattered rotations and teams. Team Urology resident and attending gatherings are frequent and casual. Although there is only one resident per year, you arrive with a built-in group of close friends; the entire resident group hangs out on a regular basis.

Great Teaching

Queen’s Urology has a renowned teaching program. The pillars are Wednesday “Prof Rounds”, in which attendings cover the major topics in urology, and Friday half-day, a mix of deep-dive case rounds, exam prep (MCQ, OSCE, visual recognition, formative quizzes), resident presentations, guideline dissections and roundtable discussions. With only five residents, the questions come fast (but don’t sweat, your colleagues have your back)! A key feature of Team Urology teaching is the presence of the majority of attendings at half day. Content expertise, tangential riffing and lots of ribbing make for a fun and fostering teaching environment.

Excellent, early operative training

Because of the close, frequent working relationship between staff and residents, the staff develop trust in your surgical skills early on. This leads to more independence in the operating room. Graduated responsibility and skills acquisition increase your aptitude and confidence month by month. There are no fellows at Queen’s — resident surgical training is the priority.

Kingston Health Sciences Centre

Residents spend the majority of their time at Kingston General Hospital. Ambulatory clinics and some ORs occur at Hotel Dieu, which is only a 7-minute walk away across historic City Park. “City wide” call can be accomplished on foot. The single large inpatient hospital also means that relationships develop quickly and deeply with your resident, attending and allied health colleagues; learning and caring for patients in a collegial and familiar environment is a huge advantage.

Research Opportunities

There are plenty of opportunities to discover if research is something you wish to pursue in your career. Resident research is made easy at Queen’s. Most staff have several projects ongoing at any time and love getting the residents involved. Research can range from quick and discrete projects to a team role in larger database and even basic science projects. The Department of Urology has a pedigree of high academic output, a leader at the university. Research assistants are available to complete ethics submissions and statistical analysis (an amazing resource that is not always available at other programs!). Our yearly resident research day is shared with colleagues in Upstate New York, with a favourite weekend away on the finger lakes in beautiful Skaneateles NY. Queen’s residents are frequent award winners.

Fellowship Opportunities

Queen’s is such a small program that all the faculty will know you very well. As a result, it’s easy to get references that will land you that Fellowship you really want. With well-known and friendly staff, as well as the big names in our history and present faculty, our former residents have been able to obtain great fellowships in Canada and abroad. Also, Queen’s Urology residency rotations leave you American Board eligible (that is not true everywhere – a point not to be overlooked for fellowship or future career aspirations).

Lifestyle

Queen’s urology prides itself on treating the residents well. Shame-based learning has no place here, and we believe that despite the demands of a surgical residency, life ought to remain joyful and full. You will develop lifelong friendships with the residents and staff in and outside of work. Many of our residents have families and find they are able to adequately balance clinical duties and family life. Critically, commutes are short and very often on foot. You cannot buy back time.

Kingston

Queen’s is located in beautiful Kingston, Ontario, at the eastern edge of Lake Ontario. It’s a city of 120,000 people with a catchment of 500,000. Kingston has a dense, historic downtown of low-rise limestone and brick., and the university and hospitals are truly just steps away. Kingston has one of the highest restaurants per capita in all of Canada, for all budgets and tastes (did someone say five amazing Cambodian restaurants?!). Coffee shops, bars, great small stores and Canada’s oldest public market (a skating rink in the winter!) make this a true jewel among Canadian cities. You can live and work in and close to downtown for very reasonable prices, and even quiet suburban neighborhoods are only 10 minutes from downtown and work. Real estate in Kingston is affordable (3/5 current residents own their houses), which is a great way to make residency more cost-effective.

Kingston is surrounded by water to the south and wilderness (and cottage country ;) on all sides. Swimming, paddling, hiking, cycling, running, even skiing, or just communing quietly in the outdoors, all within minutes of your home and work. We are also located within driving distance to a number of other great destinations which allows for amazing weekend trips. Toronto is a couple of hours by car or train, Montreal is the same to the east. Great skiing in Quebec and Vermont is just a few hours away. The grown-up’s playground of beautiful Prince Edward County is a leisurely hour’s drive. You can even be in Boston or Manhattan in six hours flat; a long weekend in New York is not just within reach, it’s just down the road.