Calgary ER physicians enjoy a practice breadth unlike any site in Canada
With a catchment of 1.2 million, our select Calgary Zone EDs see over 300 thousand patient visits a year, with a wide breadth of patient presentation and acuity. In Calgary, physicians and residents actively manage patients through their entire course of care, without stopping their management at the point of consultation. Our Emergency physicians and residents perform their own procedures, facilitate effective patient disposition and care for all aspects of our patients' presentations. Calgary attracts some of the best staff in Canada. Our staff and faculty include leaders in research and medical education along with staff with a variety of awesome specialized training expertise from ED Palliative Care to Disaster Medicine, POCUS and even Acute Stroke Neurology.
Small program = more FUN
We are fortunate to maintain such a small training program in a city of over a million people. We remain one of the smallest sites in Canada to ensure our trainees receive the best experience possible. From your first year, you are paired with yearly preceptors that refine your strengths and train your weaknesses. In your fourth and fifth year, you have the freedom to choose who you work with for a proportion of your shifts, so that you can solidify any areas you or your longitudinal preceptors believe needs work.
Two yearly retreats
You read it here. In July, we organize a trip focused on team-building, that's right, just bonding! Three days and two nights enjoying resident-cooked food, club sodas and the outdoors. We’ve been white-water rafting, and downhill/xc mountain biking, on these retreats, but even with a small program there’s an interest group for everything. Our second retreat occurs in Jan/Feb, where we embark on a joint Staff-Resident family friendly weekend of team-building, program brainstorming, wellness and road hockey in the mountains.
Funding/Contract
We are among the best paid residents in Canada, and also enjoy PST free shopping (5% GST only). Our resident association PARA truly does fight on our behalf for fair hours, salary, call stipends and resident treatment. Add in a yearly practice stipend, health/wellness spending account and our awesome call stipend and you’ll find your account goes further in Calgary. We're also super fortunate to have our staff contribute to a book and educational fund for podcast subscriptions, textbooks and other learning materials.
Full Academic Day
Calgary residents enjoy one protected full day every week with their friends, learning about their specialty. We have Grand Rounds at 9AM, followed by junior SIM / ECG rounds / EBM and then afternoon didactic lectures on core topics. Journal Club is monthly, held at a staff’s residence with dinner and drinks provided.
Exam Prep
Exam preparation begins in the first year, with quarterly practice oral and written exams built to match the licensing exam. These are not for credit, and like Vegas – what happens in exams stays there. This is of course in addition to the practice oral and written exams our keen staff will offer you when you work – on or off-service!
Off service
We are fortunate to train under world leaders in trauma, critical care, stroke and surgery. We're constantly incorporating resident feedback to make sure our off-service rotations are valuable, and our emergency medicine residents are always highly valued on their off-service rotations!
Ultrasound
All residents receive ultrasound training developed by our local US leaders in the first month of residency, and have the option of taking a dedicated ultrasound block at their convenience. We have multiple fellowship-trained ultrasonographers, and the vast majority of staff are certified independent practitioners as well. Each department has many ultrasound machines available for use and learning any time, and ultrasound also forms part of our academic curriculum as well.
Do you have questions? Get in touch!
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