An initiative of
Dr. Craig Goldie
Program Director
Ruili Fang
Queen’s University is proud to offer the subspecialty training program in Palliative Medicine. Queen’s was one of the first three training sites in 2017 and the first with Competence-By-Design model of assessments..
Palliative Medicine is a medical subspecialty designed to study, advance, assess and manage pain and other symptoms, suffering, and quality of life throughout the continuum of life and death for patients with life-limiting illness (cancer and non-cancer) including bereavement of patients’ family members.
Highlights of the Queen’s program include a collegial, experienced, and welcoming faculty: both within the Division of Palliative Medicine specifically and the Queen’s and KHSC environment at large. We provide a rigorous training experience in palliative medicine while providing significant flexibility to pursue clinical and academic opportunities suited to your own career goals. The smaller size of our program fosters close, supportive relationships between faculty and trainees. There is lots of opportunity for residents to interact with other trainees who participate in rotations in palliative care (e.g. internal medicine, oncology, and family medicine).
Our integrated clinical program occurs across diverse settings of care, including home, outpatient clinics for persons with cancer and non-cancer diagnoses, a palliative care unit, and designated acute palliative care beds plus consultations in an acute tertiary medical centre. The mandatory clinical rotations promote continuity of care and the resident is given graduated responsibility for patient care and teaching, including opportunity to act as Junior Attending to ease the transition into independent practice.
Our subspecialty training program offers a unique longitudinal (2-year) clinic program with biweekly full-day resident-run clinics at the Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario (CCSEO) to fulfill the Royal College training requirements of ambulatory palliative care.
Our academic half-day curriculum is strong, including several shared sessions with Medical and Radiation Oncology and Internal Medicine trainees and staff to facilitate shared-care and collaboration. Our residents have the opportunity to initially attend our biannual 4-day CME program, “Educating Family Physicians in Palliative Care” in their first year and then teach at subsequent courses. There are many other academic events including journal clubs, advanced practice and regional palliative medicine rounds.
Two scholarly blocks and protected time within academic half-days are provided to encourage scholarly work including a research project with the goal of presenting and publishing scholarly work by the end of the 2 years. A research supervisor within the division (and, if applicable, a co-supervisor from outside the division if required) will be available to support this work.
Queen’s offers significant resident support through Learner Wellness, clinical, research and educational development sessions, other academic activities, social activities etc. Our program is responsive to resident needs and empowers residents to lead their academic and clinical development. We also run monthly reflection rounds through our spiritual care advisor, to address compassion fatigue, existential distress and provide other supports for the difficult work of caring for our patients and their families.
This residency program is for 2 years.
Program length of training does not exceed the Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada standard.
The Palliative Medicine Subspecialty training program at Queen’s University is generally 26 blocks (2 years). Following the RCPSC competency continuum model, program rotations are purposefully organized in a manner that gradually increases resident professional responsibility and independence.
The duration of the Transition to Discipline stage is 1 block and occurs in the acute inpatient setting. Blocks 2 through 10 make up the Foundation of Discipline stage. The Core of Discipline stage begins during block 11 of first year and continues through to block 9 in second year. The program culminates with the Transition to Practice stage in the final 4 blocks of the program.
There are 3 blocks of selective time in the two year program for learners to pursue individual learning or academic goals. Trainees also have 2 blocks of scholarly activity for completing a research project related to Palliative Medicine. The majority of training occurs at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) at the tertiary Kingston General Hospital (KGH) The Acute Palliative Medicine (inpatient) service at KGH is primarily consultative in nature plus there are 3-4 acute palliative care beds located on the oncology floor, for persons with complex palliative care needs, for whom palliative medicine is the most responsible team.
The chronic/subacute Palliative Care Unit (PCU) has 10 beds at Providence Care Hospital (PCH) for which palliative medicine is the most responsible team. Community palliative care is provided in long term care facilities, retirement home facilities and in the patients’ homes for individuals residing within Kingston and the surrounding area within an approximate 30 km radius. Care provision in the community may be organized as a shared care model or with palliative medicine being the most responsible physician and team. PCU and community palliative care are done simultaneously in blocks – typically mornings in PCU and afternoons in community depending on patient needs.
The following is an example of a potential 2-year schedule. Longitudinal clinics at CCSEO run through the full 2-year schedule, providing the required 2 blocks equivalent in longitudinal format.
