The University of Alberta Adult Critical Care Medicine Program will accept applications from Internal Medicine applicants wishing to overlap their fourth year. Applicants should be aware that while they save one year of training, it is the opinion of the program director and the training committee that the costs outweigh the savings. Completing the fourth year of internal medicine allows the resident to focus on knowledge consolidation and exam preparation. Overlapping forces the resident to divide their time between critical care and internal medicine. We continue to strongly urge all Internal Medicine residents to complete the fourth year prior to starting Critical Care Medicine.
Supporting Documentation
Document
Mandatory
Optional
Reference letter
Number of letters: 3
X
Personal letter
X
Review Process
Applications submitted after the file review has opened on August 24, 2011 :
- will be considered
References and other supporting documents which arrive after the file review has opened on August 24, 2011
- will be considered
Interviews
Date(s) of Interview: Sept 28, 2011
Invitation/ Notification Information: All applicants selected for interview will be contacted by email.
Details regarding Interview: TBA
Program Highlights
This month you are helicoptering into a remote Northern village to transport a critically ill patient. Next month you are applying your advance physiology training on an ECMO patient. Between this is a heart wrenching end of life discussion with a family. This is the life of an intensivist and this is the training at the University of Alberta.
Your training with us is clinical focused and, at the end, you are prepared to care for any type of patient. Some may say we are a tough program. We believe that experience counts. Clinical medicine is a contact sport. Not everything can be learned from a textbook.
We have a smaller number of trainees so your clinical exposure is not diluted. It also creates a collegial atmosphere where you feel like a true member of the team. Expect to be on a first name basis with each attending. You are an important member of the team as an appreciate intensivist.
Program Curriculum
The Critical Care Medicine program is two years and fulfills the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada requirements for training. The mandatory twelve months of core Critical Care Medicine are divided into two month blocks. Each block gives the resident the opportunity to develop an appreciation of the entire spectrum of critical illness from admission to discharge.
The ICUs are divided into teams so that the resident is not overwhelmed with patient responsibilities. Between core rotations there is ample elective time to round out the resident’s knowledge and pursue special interests or projects. Up to three months in the two years can be used to complete the mandatory research project. In addition, two months are spent in both the Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit to provide focused exposure to those special patient populations.
A significant amount of research takes place under the auspices of the Division of Critical Care Medicine and is a required component of training. The research activities include industry sponsored clinical trials and a significant amount of investigator initiated studies funded by CIHR, Canadian Critical Care Trials Group, Medical Services Development Innovation Fund and University Hospital Foundation.
Training Sites
Our residents’ rotate at both the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital for their core Critical Care Medicine. Both of these units are general and the residents are exposed to a wide variety of critical illness, from general medicine to solid organ transplant. The Royal Alexandra Hospital and University of Alberta Hospital ICUs have 30 clinical teaching faculty with varied clinical expertise (Internal Medicine, Pulmonary, Nephrology, Anaesthesia, General Surgery and Trauma) that provide teaching sessions for the critical care residents and junior ICU residents. The ICUs are staffed with two attending staff a day at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and three attending staff a day at the University of Alberta Hospital, allowing sufficient time for teaching activities and supervision.
