Finding your niche in emergency medicine: The Canadian Fellowship Guide

In Mentorship by Jared Baylis1 Comment

The Royal College of Physicians of Canada emergency medicine Specialty Training Requirements mandate:

“…a minimum of six months, usually in PGY-4, be devoted to achieving particular expertise either in a scholarly activity or a clinical area, pertinent to the practice of the specialty of Emergency Medicine.”1

You may have found yourself pondering what it is that you might want to do with your fourth year of residency that could provide you with a niche within emergency medicine. There are many factors to consider, including whether your ideal fellowship is clinical, scholarly, or both; whether you prefer studying locally or by distance; and what specific subject area interests you most.  Recently, Thoma and colleagues2 published an excellent article highlighting the process of finding your niche, from contemplation through application and completion.

Recognizing the relative paucity of information and resources about the national opportunities for enhanced competency training, the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Resident Section has posted a fellowship guide listing fellowship, graduate, diploma, and self-made programs available to Canadian emergency medicine residents.3 This information was compiled through a survey current residents.  We hope that it serves as a starting point and brain-storming tool for residents exploring possibilities for the PGY4 fellowship year.

We also hope that, by posting this to CanadiEM, we can harness the power of social media and the FOAMed world to develop a more comprehensive national resource for future residents. Our vision is to provide a resource containing all known programs, fellowships, graduate degrees, and self-made programs that residents have successfully pursued in emergency medicine. Ideally, this will include program descriptions, resources, contact details, costs, and duration. Our hope is that eventually this will become a complete list of opportunities for EM residents as was first envisioned in a 2011 Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine paper detailing the enhanced competency pursuits of four Royal College EM residents.4 Please help us to add to it by filling out this form! We will also accept submissions that are tweeted @CAEPresidents or emailed to [email protected]. (Note: If you are interested in opportunities in the United States, please visit the Emergency Medicine Resident Association fellowship directory5).

Click here to add your Fellowship!

Finally, we are currently putting together a national working group to create this resource by next year and we are asking for your help! If you are interested in being part of our working group as a site lead or design lead, please email ([email protected]) with a statement of interest outlining relevant experiences and ability to commit to the project until June 2017.

References

1.
Specialty Training Requirements in Emergency Medicine. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. http://www.royalcollege.ca/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=36401&dDocName=TZTEST3RCPSCED000617. Accessed September 7, 2016. [Source]
2.
Thoma B, Mohindra R, Woods R. Enhanced training in emergency medicine: the search and application process. CJEM. 2015;17(5):565-568. [PubMed]
3.
Resident Fellowship Directory. Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. http://caep.ca/CAEPFellowshipDirectory. Accessed September 7, 2016.
4.
Theoret J, Sanz G, Cheng A, Nemethy K, O’Donnell S, Kelly-Smith C. The evolution of emergency medicine: the pressing need for “made in Canada” subspecialty training. CJEM. 2011;13(6):416-420. [PubMed]
5.
Fellowship Guide: Opportunities for Emergency Physicians. Emergency Medicine Resident Association. https://www.emra.org/uploadedfiles/emra/emra_publications/emra_fellowshipguide_v1_0816.pdf. Accessed October 26, 2016.

Jared Baylis

Emergency Physician at University of British Columbia
Jared is an Emergency Physician and Simulation Educator at Kelowna General Hospital in BC, Canada.

Niran Argintaru

Niran Argintaru is an Emergency Medicine resident at the University of Toronto and is the VP education for the CAEP resident section. He has interests in medical education, simulation, prehospital care and trauma.

Ahmed Taher

Ahmed is an Emergency Physician at University Health Network and Mackenzie Health in Toronto. He completed the Toronto FRCPC Emergency program, and a Masters of Public Health program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with certificates in Quality Improvement & Patient Safety, as well as Public Health Informatics.