Calgary is the major referral site for southern Alberta, parts of central Alberta, southwestern British Columbia and southeastern Saskatchewan. Delivery of care and training of residents is undertaken primarily at four adult hospitals (Foothills Medical Centre, Peter Lougheed Centre, Rockyview General Hospital and South Calgary Health Campus) as well as our pediatric facility, the Alberta Children’s Hospital. All surgical services, other than major transplant and pediatric cardiac surgery, are provided in the city. The proximity of Calgary to the mountains makes our program particularly attractive to those looking for an active outdoor lifestyle.

Our training program continually strives to strike a balance of general medical and specialist focused training, clinical experience and non-operating room instruction, tertiary care and community experiences, and rigorous training and resident wellness. Our goal is to attract well rounded individuals who wish to become excellent physicians with specialized knowledge and skills for modern anesthetic practice. We are constantly re-evaluating our program in order to optimize the educational experiences of our residents, and to ensure that their skills will meet the future needs of the specialty and society at large. We are open to new methods and means to accomplish these goals, and our faculty work together with our residents to accomplish the shared objective of producing the best anesthesiologists possible.

Our program is designed to enable residents to be able to work well independently the day after they graduate from our program, and to be in the best position possible to pursue the fellowship opportunities that they desire. Our residents are encouraged to ‘think big’ and ‘aim high’, and to appreciate that residency is a unique chapter in their lives in which they are free to pursue any educational endeavour that they desire. We are proud our flexible approach to rotation scheduling which allows us to support the residents in their professional and personal journeys through residency. Our residents work closely with faculty members from the very first day of residency to ensure that their professional goals are achieved, and that they will have reached their full potential at the completion of their residency training.

Competence By Design (CBD)

Anesthesia programs across the country began CBD on July 1, 2017 and the transition for our program has been smooth. We have carefully planned the size of our program so that we can ensure that our residents have sufficient resources for the best residency experience and education possible. Our program has provides every CBD resident with their own Academic Coach (i.e. a faculty member who serves as their Academic Advisor). Over the past several years, we have implemented curriculum/rotation changes to meet the requirements of CBD. Our curriculum is reviewed annually in collaboration with our Competence Committee Chair to ensure that residents can achieve the competencies outlined by CBD. We continue to focus on optimizing resident wellness and resiliency so that our residents can thrive during throughout their training program.