This residency program is for 1 year.

Program length of training exceeds the Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada standard.

• Eight weeks  on the Tertiary Level Palliative Care Unit, located at St. Boniface General Hospital (SBGH)
• Eight weeks at the Riverview Health Centre (RHC) Palliative Care Unit
• Two weeks with the medical oncology service at CancerCare Manitoba
• Two weeks with the radiation oncology service at CancerCare Manitoba
• Eight weeks working with the Community Consults and Home Visit Team
• Four weeks with the Hospital Consult Service at the Health Sciences Centre. Our largest tertiary care centre.
• Twelve weeks of elective time in an area of study of your choosing. This may include:
  • Interventional anesthesiology
  • Psychiatry
  • Psychosocial oncology
  • Bereavement counselling
  • Research
  • Other areas related to the delivery of palliative care medicine
• Four weeks of vacation that can be distributed throughout the training year
• The final four-week period is Senior Rotation, during which the resident will act as a junior attending physician on the SBGH Palliative Care Unit

Optional

You may have an option to participate in the following:

• Horizontal exposure in CancerCare Manitoba’s Pain and Symptom Clinic
• Up to one half-day clinic a week in your area of certification
• Rural Manitoba palliative experience with rural palliative care practitioners

Training program details

• Eight weeks supervised training period on the Tertiary Level Palliative Care Unit, located at St. Boniface General Hospital (SBGH). This rotation will include inpatient care on a 15-bed academic unit in a tertiary care teaching hospital. This hospital is in the centre of the culturally French-speaking part of Winnipeg. There is a diverse exposure to different cultures, languages and spiritual beliefs.
• Eight weeks at the Riverview Health Centre (RHC) Palliative Care Unit. This would involve inpatient care on a 30 bed unit in a community-based long-term care facility.
• Two weeks with the medical oncology service at CancerCare Manitoba. The resident will participate in outpatient clinics associated with several Disease Site Groups, as well as hospital consultation and academic rounds. The rotation will focus on issues related to learning principles of malignant disease, its diagnosis and treatment. This includes solid tumours as well as hematologic malignancies.
• Two weeks with the radiation oncology service at CancerCare Manitoba. The resident will rotate through several of the Disease Site Groups, and learn some of the principles of therapeutic radiation as well as the use of radiation as a modality for treatment, especially as therapy for the palliation of symptoms.
• Eight weeks working with the Community Consults and Home Visit Team. This will include the assessment and management of the terminally ill in the home, as well as preparation of the patient and family for death at home. The resident will work in conjunction with an interdisciplinary care team and will provide consultative services to other community hospitals. This is done in conjunction with clinical nurse specialists providing supportive and palliative consultation.
• Twelve weeks of elective time in an area of study of the resident’s choice. This may include interventional anesthesiology, psychiatry, psychosocial oncology, bereavement counseling, or other areas related to the delivery of palliative medicine. Prior to commencement of the rotation, the Program Director/Committee will approve the program, as well as the specific rotational objectives developed by the trainee.
• Four weeks vacation that can be distributed throughout the training year.
• The resident will undertake a scholarly project, which will be ongoing throughout the year of training. The resident will be able to use one of the elective rotations to help with the completion of this or other scholarly projects. This block can be used to learn further techniques in biostatistics or clinical trial design. Supervision can be under any of the palliative care physicians with research experience, or may be under a physician from another but related area (e.g., radiation or medical oncologist). The resident will also be encouraged to present any findings from the research project at local, national or international conferences.
• The final four-week period is the Senior Rotation. The resident will act as an attending physician on the SBGH Palliative Care Unit. The resident will take responsibility for teaching of other trainees on the unit at this time. Supervision will continue to be provided by the faculty.
• The resident will have the option to participate in the CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB) Pain & Symptom Clinic as a horizontal exposure. This clinic has a multidisciplinary focus, with the participation of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, psychosocial oncology and nutrition (CCMB site). It is located at the St. Boniface Site of CancerCare Manitoba. Research and education are an integral part of the clinic. The resident is strongly encouraged to participate in this clinic when available.
• The resident has the option of pursuing up to one ½ day clinic a week in the area of their certification. This must not interfere with their progress in the residency, and should be timed to cause the least disruption to their work on the individual rotations.
• The resident will have the option to spend time in a rural setting under the supervision of rural palliative care practitioners. This would involve inpatient and home palliative care, both primary and consultative. The resident will be exposed to the unique aspects of the provision of palliative care in the rural setting.