FRCPC or CCFP-EM? This is a question that EM physicians spend a lot of time discussing with their mentees. Why are there two EM designations in Canada? What do the letters even mean? What’s the difference? Which route is right for you? These are great questions. Unfortunately, as with many important decisions, you’ll probably get as many answers to them as people you ask. Everyone in the Canadian EM world seems to have …
Carmscast Episode 04: Reflections
Welcome to Carmscast, the podcast that aims to answer all the questions medical students have when creating a competitive CARMS application. In today’s episode, our co-hosts, Kara and Dakoda, mix up the podcast format and reflect on their CaRMS experience over the last year. Dr. Kara Tastad is now a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine. She will soon be starting her first year of emergency medicine residency at the …
Post-game: The CaRMS Rank List
Even after CaRMS interviews are over there is a lot of “stuff” to do. Should you send a thank you note to the programs that interviewed you? How is the program going about making their CaRMS rank list? How should you go about making your CaRMS rank list? Should this change if you’re entering the couples match? And what really happens if the unthinkable occurs and you go unmatched? This post will cover these topics and more.
Game Time: The CaRMS Interview
This is part two of the CaRMS Trilogy and will focus on CaRMS interviews. See Pre-game: CaRMS Interview Preparation and Post-game: The CaRMS Rank List for discussion of other aspects of CaRMS and the full CaRMS Guide for the complete series of medical student mentorship posts. There are generally three parts to the CaRMS interview: the social, the tour, and the interviews. I can speak best to the FRCPC-EM tour because that is the one I …
Pre-Game: CaRMS Interview Preparation
It’s that time of year again. The references are in, the applications are complete, interviews have been accepted, flights are booked and medical students across Canada are preparing themselves for the rigamarole known as CaRMS that will determine where they will be living for the next 2-5 years and what kind of medicine they will be practicing for the rest of their lives. All you can do now is some CaRMS interview preparation.
Routes to emergency medicine practice following a Family Medicine residency
Believe it or not, CCFP graduates provide the majority of emergency care in Canada. I don’t mean CCFP physicians with an emergency medicine (EM) designation – I’m referring to regular non-EM family physicians. From the very northern settlements of Canada to southern border cities, family physicians have been working in emergency departments since their earliest days in Canada. This begs the important question: what is the value added through a recognized college competency …