What is family medicine residency program like?

[Guest ec416]

Hi,

 

I know this is years and years down the road for me, but I'm thinking about family medicine and can't help but to wonder what the residency program is like. I know the program is 2 years long and that's about it. :\

 

Thanks!

 

ec

[Guest aneliz]

They are all different...depending on the school. Try checking out some of the dept of family medicine websites at th various different schools. I imagine that most will have some information on their residency program structure.

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's the link to the CaRMS description of each Family Medicine program in Canada:

 

www.carms.ca/programdir/spec.htm#FAMILY

 

As a quick summary, FM is a two year residency, where you rotate through a number of specialty services (ie. Pediatrics, OB/GYN, Emerg, Surgery, Internal Medicine, ICU, Psychiatry, etc), as well as Family Medicine itself. You have the opportunity to do electives in particular areas of interest (ie. Geriatrics, Palliative Care, etc).

 

It isn't as though you spend 24 months doing a "Family Medicine" rotation, but rather 24 months is spent doing work within each of these specialty areas to gain the necessary skills to be a generalist in that area (ie. you won't be doing C-sections on triplets at the end of your Obstetrics rotation, but you'll know about the prenatal workup for a pregnant patient, and how to deliver an uncomplicated patient in labour, etc).

 

There's also the option to do a third year fellowship in something like Emerg (called the CCFP Emerg).

 

Ian