Family Practice Anesthesia | Family Medicine | School of Medicine

Welcome to the Department of Family Medicine at Queen's University. For some of you this will also be a welcome to the City of Kingston and to the Province of Ontario. We hope that you will find your year with us satisfying, both academically and socially. Our mandate as a Department is to help prepare you for the challenges of practice in smaller communities, rural and northern areas of Ontario and Canada. The Enhanced Skills Training program in Family Medicine Anesthesia is intended to help you meet some of these challenges, and is designed for learners who have their CCFP or are CCFP-eligible. To apply for the Queen’s Enhanced Skills Programs, candidates must be currently enrolled as a PGY2 in a Canadian Family Medicine Residency Program at the time of application (residents must start their PGY3 training year within 12 months of completing their PGY2 year), or be a physician currently practising in Canada and meeting program funding eligibility requirements through the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (please see the re-entry program of the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care for details on how to apply).

The Department of Family Medicine enjoys an excellent relationship with the Department of Anesthesiology which will also serve as part of your “home” during this year of enhanced skills training. The faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology have been training Family Practice Anesthetists for many decades and the department as a whole has been consistently committed to training FPAs for our rural communities. Although much of your work in the next year will be at the Kingston General Hospital, it is important for you to feel free to use the Family Medicine Centre as a home base as well. If at any time you are experiencing any difficulties in the program, I want you to feel very comfortable in contacting me for assistance. My Program Assistant is Dana Rae (dana.rae@queensu.ca) and she can readily track me down any day of the week. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. Upon entering the program, I will provide you with my email and telephone number so that you can reach me as needed.

The Royal College Program Director in the Department of Anesthesiology is Dr. Jordan Leitch. Dr. Leitch will be one of your primary contacts in the program and I know that they would be pleased to assist you in any way possible. The Program Assistant in the Department of Anesthesiology is Kim Asselstine (Kim.Asselstine@kingstonhsc.ca) and she is an additional resource for you during your year of training.

I will be meeting with you on a quarterly basis to review your evaluations and ensure that you are progressing through the year in a satisfactory manner, as well as to review any training-specific goals you may have. The Family Practice Anesthesia year is intensive and challenging. To assist you in becoming practice-ready in the one year timeframe, we offer excellent daily one-on-one training, weekly (or more frequent) small group learning sessions, as well as multiple simulation sessions run by expert staff. Self-directed learning plays a large part, and we ask that you come to the program prepared to develop a personal independent learning plan. Please see the Red Book published by the CFPC for further delineation of FPA Priority Topics and Key Features that will be used to guide your training.

I believe that you will find the rotations and the formal academic curriculum to be very satisfactory in helping you achieve the goal of becoming a competent FPA. We are committed to ensuring that the Queen's Program achieves a high standard of excellence, and we want you to feel well prepared and confident as you enter independent practice in a community setting.

Sincerely,

Cameron MacLean, MD, CCFP (FPA)

Queen's University

Assistant Professor Departments of Family Medicine and Anesthesiology

PGY3 Enhanced Skills Anesthesia Program Director