The Queen’s CCFP-EM program is a strong and dynamic program, and has been a source of pride to the Queen’s Family Medicine Program. We are located in historic Kingston which offers the advantages of a teaching centre within the context of a smaller community. The Kingston Health Sciences Centre and our community hospital partners provide diversity and excellent clinical exposure while also promoting the advantages of small-medium sized centres, including a close association between residents and teachers.

The objectives of the program are to provide comprehensive clinical and academic exposure to ensure a broad knowledge base and proficiency in the management of acute and critical illness within the Emergency Department setting. We respect that residents are adult learners and we strive to be flexible in order to meet individual needs. Our faculty have largely been teaching PGY-3 CCFP-EM residents for many years and understand the unique needs of our residents. Our rotations take place in both tertiary care and community hospitals. We have a strong liaison with all departments hosting our rotations which ensures that the needs of our residents are met.

We have numerous surrounding community emergency departments, many of which are staffed by former residents. Many of these physicians take part in our program as clinical preceptors and teachers in our academic sessions. We also have a strong and close relationship with the Department of Emergency Medicine’s excellent 5-year FRCP-EM residency program, offering further flexibility and academic opportunities for our residents.

The academic program at Queen’s is robust and well-organized, to prepare you both for clinical practice and the CCFP-EM certification examination.

In July and August we offer a “Summer Series” of eight full-day sessions which review core resuscitation and procedural skills. This culminates in a final OSCE-type mini-exam to review the principals of resuscitation. This summer “boot camp” series has proven to be very popular with our residents, and gives them foundational skills, as well as opportunity to connect and form friendships with both CCFP-EM and FRCP-EM residents early in the year.

Starting block 2, residents will enjoy a longitudinal curriculum of dedicated CCFP-EM academic days. These days consist of a horizontal trauma simulation program, horizontal airway simulation program,  practice oral/written examinations, and interactive seminars. These monthly seminar sessions are taught by both tertiary centre and community faculty who present a diverse, organized series of topics relevant to the CCFP-EM year. Given there are a number of rotations outside of Kingston, another half-day of curriculum is provided virtually. This entails our longitudinal toxicology curriculum, and covering dedicated priority topics in an engaging manner utilizing virtual resuscitation.

In addition to our regularly scheduled teaching days, we have a 2-day cadaver course focusing on airway, chest tubes and resuscitative thoracotomy, a Research day and practice SAMP sessions, “There’s More to Life” day (where faculty and residents can share non-medical areas of interest/expertise), and a CCFP-EM Winter Retreat (practice readiness, medical talks, program review and fun!).

Each week, during the KHSC Emergency Medicine rotation, there are protected full academic day which consists of Emergency Grand Rounds, Core Rounds, and Simulation Resuscitation Rounds. These rounds take place in conjunction with the FRCP residents in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Simulation-based teaching is fundamental to the CCFP-EM program. The Queen’s Simulation Lab is a state-of-the-art simulation facility and our faculty are some of the most experienced and skilled simulation educators in the country. Weekly senior resuscitation rounds during Kingston EM blocks provide an ideal means for practicing advanced critical-care skills in a safe and supportive environment. Our highly-developed simulation program will bring you through a trauma, airway and resuscitation curriculum, and provide opportunities for you to teach junior learners in the simulation lab.

A new addition in 2021 was the implementation of stroke school run by the excellent neurology department at our Kingston site. These sessions help prepare residents to take an allotment of stroke call throughout the year. This aims to help develop skills in recognition and management of acute strokes for all future centres of practice; from small sites with tele stroke to larger centres with full stroke teams.

We also have dedicated faculty with expertise in Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) and all CCFP-EM residents graduate with core emergency medicine POCUS certification (aorta, free-fluid abdomen, first trimester pregnancy, subxiphoid cardiac, and lung). All CCFP-EM residents will be given opportunity to do an advanced POCUS applications block, involving practice in gallbladder, DVT, advanced cardiac, pulmonary, IVC, renal and MSK applications. Core CPOCUS certification is available to all residents should they decide to challenge the exams.

An average of nine practice CCFP-EM oral examination sessions and three SAMPs-style CCFP-EM written examinations are provided yearly to help prepare residents for the certification examination. Residents are invited back after graduation for one last practice oral examination session just before challenging the CCFP-EM certification exam in September. Our pass rate for the CCFP-EM certification exam in the last 10 years exceeds 95%.

All residents are provided with full access to BMJ Best Practice, Dynamed PLUS, the Emergency Medicine Challenger on-line Medical Education Program, as well as HIPPO-EM.