2064 Canadian Family Physician•Le Médecin de famille canadien❖VOL 46: OCTOBER • OCTOBRE 2000
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n Canada 15 Faculties of Medicine currently offer 16 third- year additional skills programs in Family Medicine Emergency Medicine (EM). The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa has two sites; each functions as a virtu- ally independent unit. About 80 residents in total are enrolled annually in these programs.Previous applicants to these third-year EM programs have universally agreed that application dates and packages varied greatly across the country. Applicants’ financial and time commitments were relatively large. Also, individual programs required identical or similar information, duplicat- ing one another’s “paper trail.” The process was inefficient, and attempts to harmonize it have been unsuccessful.
The Section of Residents of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, through their chairperson, commented on and requested a review of the application process for all third-year special skills programs.1The EM Program Directors’
Committee has worked hard since January 2000 to solve this
problem. Through a series of electronic conferences, we have reached national consensus in several areas.
Starting this fall for the academic year 2001-2002, all pro- grams selecting residents for the third-year EM track will have uniform dates. The deadline for submission of complet- ed applications will be September 15. The resident selection process will be finished by October 25, when prospective residents will be notified. Further, inter view dates for all programs west of Ontario have already been selected. Last, all programs will require a firm reply from those who are offered positions by October 27.
To make application packages more uniform, nine pro- grams will start using common forms. We hope that in time all EM programs will use the same forms. Benefits from this reform can be summarized as follows.
• All prospective applicants will have one common set of dates to abide by. This will make the process more efficient and fair.
• Predetermined interview dates for western programs will allow residents to make appropriate and, we hope, cost- effective travel arrangements.
• The October 27 deadline will be conducive for applicants to make a definite choice and will allow all programs to complete their rosters in a timely fashion.
• Using uniform application packages will decrease the work- load of residents, university registrars, Dean’s offices, and Department of Family Medicine offices as well as the work of physicians who write letters of reference for applicants.
All of these parties will be allowed to provide a photocopy of a master reply sheet to all participating programs.
Currently the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians are working on adding all relevant information about this process to their respective Internet websites.
We strongly believe that these new procedures will streamline the entire process for applicants and programs.
We invite all other third-year special skills programs to adopt similar national models.
Dr Steiner is Program Director of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and is Chairman of the EM Program Directors’
Committee. Dr Yoon is Assistant Program Director of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alberta. Dr LeBlanc is Program Director of Emergency Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS.
Reference
1. Cuddihy H. Residents’ Page [Resources]. Can Fam Physician 1999;45:2423 (Eng), 2433 (Fr).
Resources
❖Ressources
Nationwide reform of applications
Family Medicine Emergency Medicine programs
Ivan P. Steiner, MD, MCFP(EM) Philip W. Yoon, MD, MBA, CCFP(EM) Constance H. LeBlanc, MD, CCFP(EM)
