Qualifications
All candidates who have completed residency training in emergency medicine, internal medicine, general surgery, or anesthesia base specialty programs are welcome to apply. Candidates must have completed training in their base program on entry to the Adult Critical Care Medicine program. The number of Residents accepted to the program varies annually.
Foreign applicants must have completed an Internal Medicine specialty base training in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia (or have successfully challenged the Canadian/US/UK/Australian Royal College Examinations or equivalent). All letters of reference must be from Canadian or internationally recognized intensive care physicians.
Clinical Rotation Requirements
The Adult Critical Care Training Program at the University of Ottawa is a 2 year program. The Critical Care residents rotate on the same 4 week block schedule as the rotating residents. Critical Care residents beginning their training are required to function as junior Critical Care Residents, spending one block at each Intensive Care Unit at The Ottawa Hospital at the beginning of their training and two blocks in the Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute over the two years. In-house call is required for these mandatory rotations. Once the Critical Care resident has completed their two “junior” blocks in the Intensive Care Units, they begin to take call from home. Call requirements for the CSICU rotations remain in-house. Call responsibilities gradually increase as the year progresses.
Intensive Care Units can be demanding environments and care is taken to ensure that our Critical Care residents are not overwhelmed or overburdened. Therefore, the core intensive care rotations are spread over the two years. There are a total of 15 core ICU blocks and 11 elective blocks of which 3 can be used as research blocks. Residents are expected to lead bedside patient-care rounds and to make most management decisions. The ICU Attending Staff attend these daily rounds as consultants, ensuring that the highest standard of care is maintained.
Critical Care Residents are expected to provide teaching supervision to residents rotating through the Intensive Care Units. As Junior Attendings, they should provide the rotating residents with supervision of invasive procedures (once they have acquired clinical expertise in these skills), and most importantly, as resources for discussion of all aspects of patient care.
Electives
Electives must be approved by the Program Director and must have defined learning objectives for the practice of Adult Critical Care Medicine.
Out of town electives will not be granted during May of each year, as presentation and attendance at the annual Critical Care Research Day is mandatory.
Research
Critical Care residents conduct a research project during their training. Research projects must be approved by the Program Director and a supervisor needs to be assigned.
Academic Half Day
Academic Half Day is held every Wednesday afternoon during the academic year and follows a two-year schedule.
Journal Club
Journal Club is held monthly from September to June. Fellows are assigned a Faculty supervisor to assist with the article selection and analysis.
Critical Care Research Day
All Critical Care residents are to present a scholarly project at our annual Rick Hodder Scholarship Day in May of each year. Acceptable presentations would be research projects, an interesting case or a Continuing Quality Initiative (CQI) project.
Mortality & Morbidity (M&M) Rounds
M&M Rounds are held monthly at each of The Ottawa Hospital’s Intensive Care Units.
Ottawa Hospital Teaching Rounds
Residents are encouraged to attend the various teaching rounds offered at The Ottawa Hospital with the proviso that clinical work is not affected.
ACLS/ATLS
All Residents should be proficient at ACLS. Access to the Advanced Trauma Skills (ATLS) course is also available.
Protected Educational Time
All Critical Care Medicine Residents are exempt from clinical responsibilities to attend Academic Half Day, Journal Club, Academic Day, ACES and Computer Simulation sessions.
Core Competency
Critical Care Medicine Fellows may spend either one half-day a week or one full day every two weeks in their respective base specialties to maintain their clinical competence.
Vacation & Conference Leave
The Critical Care Training Program honors the PARO contract (www.paro.org) in regards to leave. Leave is to be requested, in writing, four weeks in advance and forwarded to the Program Administrative office. All approved leave will be entered into the WebEval system.