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Red Deer is a rural family medicine training stream within the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. We strongly believe that future rural physicians should train in the setting in which they will practice. The training program is rigorous and comprehensive with acute care rotations to challenge and build confident and competent family medicine practitioners. There is also a strong emphasis on resident wellness and student support.
PGY1
PGY2
The first year of our program includes a mix of hospital based specialty rotations and an extended rural family medicine block. Specialty rotations are often shared with other FM residents and sometimes with fellowship residents from Edmonton or Calgary. Preceptor based learning ensures excellent access to clinical cases and individual teaching which is usually one-on-one. Because clinical services are not dependent on the presence of house staff, on-call is often from home and learning experiences are focused on education more than service. The 16 week rural family medicine rotation may be scheduled at any time within the first year. This prolonged exposure ensures a true experience of comprehensive care and continuity of care with a limited panel of patients for whom the resident can start to feel truly responsible. Additionally, there is the option for residents to do an integrated rotation in Camrose that combines the first year family medicine blocks with longitudinal experiences in General Surgery, Obstetrics, and Internal Medicine. There is an additional 5 weeks of elective time that residents can use to tailor their learning to their individual needs & interests. Residents are assigned a Faculty Advisor at the beginning of their first year. This will be one of the Site Co-Directors who will follow their progress and provide academic advice throughout the 2 years of training.
There are further specialty rotations in second year but the main thrust of PGY2 is to develop the resident as a rural family physician, building on the knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired in the first year. The key rotations are two additional rural family medicine blocks of 8 weeks and 16 weeks duration. These rotations provide further opportunities to experience comprehensive medicine and continuity of care in a rural setting. There is an option to do the 8 week rural family medicine rotation in Whitehorse.
Red Deer is a community of 100,000 which lies within the Edmonton – Calgary corridor, 150 km from both cities. The 390-bed Red Deer Regional Hospital has a full complement of specialists providing care to the roughly 300,000 residents of the region. Family physicians continue to have a key role within the hospital and act as the attending physician for half of all admissions. The city has a thriving recreational base, together with a complete range of cultural and educational activities. Rural family medicine rotations occur at our many rural teaching sites. These sites are generally in medium sized rural communities (5000 – 10000 people) with busy emergency rooms and active surgical and obstetrical programs. Some sites are within close range of the Red Deer home base but many residents choose to go to other more distant communities as far away as Whitehorse.
There is a two year structured learning program which covers the full range of topics important to family medicine. This includes weekly academic rounds, monthly academic days as well as several workshops throughout the course of the program. Academic days are made up of didactic teaching as well as interactive sessions which include exam preparation, therapeutics, ethics and guideline review. Workshop subjects include Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM), Behavioral Medicine, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), CASTED, Emergency Department Echo (EDE), and critical care simulations. Additionally, monthly sessions called Finding Meaning in Medicine are hosted by one of our local physicians, who facilitates discussions on topics related to resident wellness and challenges faced personally and professionally while in medicine.
Residents must be ACLS certified before starting their residency. ALARM, CARE(ATLS), NRP and PALS courses are all reimbursed to the resident when successfully completed during residency.
In the first year each resident does a workshop in Brief Evidence Based Medicine (BEARs). These are then presented at Family Medicine Rounds at the Red Deer Hospital. A Practice Quality Improvement (PQI) project is assigned in the second year and is completed in the 16 week family medicine block. Funding may be available to support presentation of resident projects at family medicine conferences and meetings, and research assistance is accessible through the Alberta Primary Care Research Unit as well as the research division in the Department of Family Medicine.
There are 4 weeks of vacation days given in each year but not allotted as block time. Additionally there are 6 consecutive holidays days at Christmas (or other religious holiday) and up to 5 days to write and prepare for national exams. Our residents have the flexibility to work their vacation time into their rotation schedule.
Alberta | |
|---|---|
Pay Level 1 | $58,934 |
Pay Level 2 | $65,232 |
Pay Level 3 | $70,259 |
Pay Level 4 | $75,291 |
Pay Level 5 | $81,584 |
Pay Level 6 | $86,615 |
Pay Level 7 | $93,577 |
Pay Level 8 | $101,114 |
Educational Leave | 14 days paid leave |
Annual Vacation | 4 weeks/yr |
Call Stipends | Weekday in-house – $118.02 Weekend in-house / holiday – $178.72 Weekday home call – $59.01 Weekend home call / holiday – $89.35 |
Frequency of Calls | In-house call: 7/28. 2/4 weekend call. Home call: 9/28. 2/4 weekend call **A Resident scheduled on Home call but who is required to work more than four hours in hospital during the call period, of which more than one full hour is past 12:00 a.m. and before 6:00 a.m., or more than six (6) hours in hospital during the call period, shall be remunerated at the rate for In-House call.$100 per day for each scheduled weekend day of patient rounds when not on-call |
Practice Stipend | $1,500 |
Extended Health Insurance | 75% premium paid
$1000 per year Flexible Spending Account*
|
Provincial Dues (% of salary) | .95% |
Dental Plan | 75% premium paid |
CMPA Dues Paid | $1,500 |
Life Insurance | 100% towards $150,000 coverage |
Life Support Course Costs (Program Approved) | 100% paid |
Long-Term Disability Insurance | 100% paid for 75% gross income |
Statutory Holidays | Paid days. Additional days off are given if resident works the day before and part of a named holiday. |
Parental Leave | 2 weeks leave with full pay and benefits;
52 weeks (inclusive of Maternity/Paternity/Adoption Leaves) – unpaid leave
|
Sick leave | Up to 3 months or to end contract paid leave, whichever occurs first |
Maternity Leave | 18 weeks total (17 weeks paid to match 90% of salary when combined with EI) |
Updated September 2024
Resident Physicians shall advance to the next pay level upon completion of twelve (12) months of service at each level. (PARA Agreement – Article 35)
*Terms of Agreement January 2022 – June 2024
https://www.para-ab.ca/agreement/
Yes! To apply to any of the UofA family medicine sites this is required. The Registration period for 1st round of CaRMS is Wednesday 11th September 2024 – Thursday 7th November 2024 at 10AM ET.
Test Window: Opens 28th October Monday 8AM ET, closes 11th November Monday 10AM ET.
Full details regarding registration and assessment info is at https://fmproc.com/
Although most of the application is the same, there is a specific rural question to be answered if you are applying to the rural sites.
Yes! If offered an interview you can add Yellowknife, Camrose and/or Grande Prairie prior to ranking, however interviews are separate for urban and rural and you would not be able to add Edmonton.
Residents are responsible for their own housing in Red Deer. Funding is provided for housing for rotations outside of the regional home base of Red Deer.
Yes absolutely. Red Deer is the regional hospital for all of the central zone. As a result of this, most acute patients will be brought from the surrounding rural hospitals. This is great for you as a learner because you are the one running the trauma rooms and performing the procedures.
By having fewer other learners in the hospital and usually being the primary learner on a service, you get to work one on one with the staff. The staff usually tailors your experience to ensure that your personal learning objectives are met and allows you to do all the procedures. You are not standing behind any other learners when interesting cases come in. As a result, you will be more ready for independent practice when the time comes.
10 month total First year: one – 4 month block Second year: one – 2 month block and one – 4 month block Since Red Deer is one of the rural programs at the University of Alberta, we priority on all rural sites so that we are able to pick the ones that best meet our learning objectives.
Red Deer does not have a vacation block which is great! We get to spread our 20 vacation and 4 flex days over the entire year instead of having all our time off in one month. There is quite a bit of flexibility for scheduling your time off as long as proper notice is given to the program admin. We also get conference, study, exam and education days.
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