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Anaesthesia!


Guest TimmyMax

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Competitiveness is a hard thing to measure as it seems to fluctuate from year to year. If you look at the CaRMS stats from 2012, 130 people listed anesthesia as their first choice and of those, 94 matched. The 7 remaining spots were filled were filled by people who had listed anaesthesia as their second or third choice.

 

You should be able to get interviews with 6 weeks of anesthesia elective time. With regards to location, there are a few things to consider. There are places like Manitoba that don't seem to offer interviews to those who haven't done a rotation there. Considering they have a very strong program that would probably be a good choice for one of your electives. Dalhousie is also a great place because they assign you to the same preceptor for the entire two weeks. This allows you to get a strong letter of reference (assuming the two weeks goes well). I'm sure others can chime in regarding their experience at other locations (there's also a thread that discusses anesthesia electives that you can check out). In general though, all of the anesthesia programs in Canada are strong, pick a place you could see yourself living for five years and go check out their program.

 

Best of luck!

 

Thanks for the info! That's good to know about places like Manitoba. I'd really like to demonstrate that I'm willing to move, and also do electives at any places that won't interview me without one. Do you know of any other programs that do this historically?

 

Also, does Dal give you some choice as far as preceptors? I was just thinking that it would be good to do some digging to figure out who the best preceptors are, and who's involved in the selection committee etc.

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I don't know of any other schools other than Manitoba that has those restrictions but UBC, Calgary, Queens and Dal can also be a bit harder to get interviews at.

 

As for preceptor selection at Dal, I didn't have any input but I lucked out got along really well with mine. You could always ask their electives administrator about that. They genuinely want you to have a good experience so I can't see them putting you with anyone bad.

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  • 2 years later...

At Dal I was supposedly assigned one preceptor, but because he was involved in the admin side of things, I actually got to work with other staff as well. This actually turned out completely in my favour, and all three of my dal reference letters were from the staff I worked with. Another student on elective at Dal didn't really hit it off with their preceptor, and actually was with them for the entire time. So there are pros and cons.

McMaster also assigned me one person for two weeks. I was at St. Joseph's, if that helps. The clerkship coordinator is super super nice. Western also assigned two people for me who I worked with regularly. I think more schools are starting to do that

I think Ottawa historically tend to interview more people who did electives there, but I've known a couple of people who got an interview without an elective. (Also know people who got interviews for Manitoba without an elective.) in Ottawa, it's very important to work at least one day with someone on the selection panel, since it's always the same five people interviewing everyone.

I found that Calgary was difficult to find people to write letters, because it was impossible for me to figure out who will be picking the room early enough that they can put themselves in a room without residents, or go through the trouble to switch rooms so that I can work with them. In a couple of instances, the reason I couldn't work with someone again was that they would be in a room with a resident already.

UWO and U of T almost interviews everyone. Alberta says they interview about 60 people, which is I think approximately the norm for other schools as well

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  • 1 month later...

Anyone familiar, applied to or currently in the anesthesiology clinical investigator program at U of T? I'm wondering how intense it is because the graduate portion is 2 years while the entire residency is 6 years in length (only one additional year). Sounds like a great experience though. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

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  • 5 months later...
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This thread seems a bit dead but I will bump in instead of making a new topic... Recently found out about this forum.

 

Any residents in anesthesia here?

 

I am a Sherbrooke student, 4th year graduating this year. Did not apply for carms this year so I can focus on other things (family, cancer, long story, not fun). Planning on going to family medicine the year after.

Now I am doing my anesthesia elective right now, picked it up for fun, had no interest beforehand. The doctor I work with is now pushing me to apply for it next year since he thinks I will be good and is offering me a letter of reference. I do have interest for this, but I want to be realistic too. Any chance I get accepted? Only have one elective in, others are focused on physical medicine, in my university, but strong references, can use this year to build up a CV (research in anesth?) but it would have to be in Sherby. Wondering if the fact I miss one year not doing medicine will hurt me, since I know it's a very very competitive field. I do not mind putting a lot of work during the year to build an application, if my chances are good, if they are realistically non existant I won't start this endeavour.

 

If anyone has some experience with this I will appreciate any help :)

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  • 3 years later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/5/2019 at 3:28 PM, MarsRover said:

I was offered electives at both western and mcmaster, anyone have any input on which is best to accept?

 

Both are good options. Personally, I did an elective at McMaster which was excellent. A few friends did one at Western and found it to be a positive experience as well. For McMaster, they usually try to pair you with one staff for the entire two weeks (or most of it), which can be beneficial for a potential reference letter. 

I'd base it off of which school / program / city you have more interest in exploring. 

Good luck! Feel free to PM me for any further anesthesiology-related questions. 

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