Calgary Learning Experiences

FM-Core: Through a combination of family medicine clinic at your home clinic site as well as virtual, in-person, and practical teaching sessions this block provides opportunities to improve your family medicine knowledge and skills. There is no after-hours commitment for this block.

Internal Medicine (IM): In the hospital setting you will work with a team (including clinical clerks, residents, fellows, allied health staff, consulting physicians, etc.) to provide comprehensive care to patients admitted to the medical teaching units at one of the four hospitals in Calgary. This block includes call.

Electives:  Elective blocks enable you to address your individual learning needs through clinical experiences. Electives are required to be based on learning objectives defined by you, the resident, be supervised by a physician and be full time. Electives may require an after-hours commitment depending on the learning experience that is chosen.

FM Community: By spending time in a variety of settings you will continue to improve your family medicine skills and knowledge during this block. Clinical time is divided between the home clinic site, a community site and an after-hours setting such as urgent care of an after-hours clinic. A community site is a comprehensive family medicine clinic where teaching may be with one preceptor (possibly at multiple clinics) or at one clinic with multiple preceptors (with one preceptor as the evaluator). This block includes a family medicine mental health lab (FM MHL). This block includes evening and weekend commitments

Longitudinal Indigenous Health: This is a longitudinal experience that will allow you to spend time in an Indigenous Health learning environment, focusing on the social and clinical needs of the community in which you are placed. You will attend this learning environment two half days per family medicine block over the course of your first year of residency. An application for this elective experience is required at the beginning of the academic year, given the limited number of clinical environments available for placement.

Long Term Care (LTC) / Supportive Living (SL): During this longitudinal experience you will follow patients over the course of the year with two half day clinics per family medicine block for a total of ten visits over the course of your first year in residency. This opportunity provides experience with family medicine in long-term care/supportive living settings. This is an opt-in learning experience.

FM Community: By spending time in a variety of settings you will continue to improve your family medicine skills and knowledge during this block. Clinical time is divided between the home clinic site, a community site and an after-hours setting such as urgent care of an after-hours clinic. A community site is a comprehensive family medicine clinic where teaching may be with one preceptor (possibly at multiple clinics) or at one clinic with multiple preceptors (with one preceptor as the evaluator). This block includes a family medicine mental health lab (FM MHL). This block includes evening and weekend commitments

Longitudinal Indigenous Health: This is a longitudinal experience that will allow you to spend time in an Indigenous Health learning environment, focusing on the social and clinical needs of the community in which you are placed. You will attend this learning environment two half days per family medicine block over the course of your first year of residency. An application for this elective experience is required at the beginning of the academic year, given the limited number of clinical environments available for placement.

Long Term Care (LTC) / Supportive Living (SL): During this longitudinal experience you will follow patients over the course of the year with two half day clinics per family medicine block for a total of ten visits over the course of your first year in residency. This opportunity provides experience with family medicine in long-term care/supportive living settings. This is an opt-in learning experience.

Low-Risk Obstetrics (OB): You will spend time in both a community maternity clinic and a labour and delivery hospital unit, where you will learn to provide care to all stages of maternity patients including their prenatal care, during labor and delivery, and post-partum/newborn care.  A few clinics will be dedicated to time spent in a lactation clinic.  This block includes obstetrical call.

Psychiatry Emergency Medicine: (Psyc EM): Working with psychiatric emergency nurses as well as psychiatrists you will gain experience assessing and managing acute mental health presentations. Responsibilities include seeing, reviewing and when appropriate admitting new psychiatric consults from the emergency department. Other responsibilities may include managing overnight issues as they arise for admitted inpatients and rounding on admitted inpatients. This block includes call.

FM Behavioral Medicine/Mental Health (FM-BM/MH): Clinical time is divided between the home clinic site and various ambulatory mental health clinical experiences to increase your ability to diagnose and manage patients with mental health concerns. This block includes a Family Medicine Mental Health Lab (FM MHL) and a Patient Centered Communication Lab (PCCL). There is no after-hours commitment for this block.

Longitudinal Indigenous Health: This is a longitudinal experience that will allow you to spend time in an Indigenous Health learning environment, focusing on the social and clinical needs of the community in which you are placed. You will attend this learning environment two half days per family medicine block over the course of your first year of residency. An application for this elective experience is required at the beginning of the academic year, given the limited number of clinical environments available for placement.

Long Term Care (LTC) / Supportive Living (SL):  , During this longitudinal experience you will follow patients over the course of the year with two half day clinics per family medicine block for a total of ten visits over the course of your first year in residency. This opportunity provides experience with family medicine in long-term care/supportive living settings. This is an opt-in learning experience.

Adult Emergency Medicine: During scheduled shifts at one of the four emergency departments in Calgary you will continue to develop skills and knowledge to manage patients with acute presentations of illness, injury, and trauma. This block includes evening and weekend commitments.

FM- Child Plus: Clinical time will be spent in your home clinic for four and a half days per week for three weeks with one week away from your home clinic in a general pediatric clinic or various pediatric subspecialty clinic (pediatric ENT, pediatric GI, head shape clinic etc.). This block includes a family medicine mental health lab (FM MHL). There is no after-hours commitment for this block.

Longitudinal Indigenous Health: This is a longitudinal experience that will allow you to spend time in an Indigenous Health learning environment, focusing on the social and clinical needs of the community in which you are placed. You will attend this learning environment two half days per family medicine block over the course of your first year of residency. An application for this elective experience is required at the beginning of the academic year, given the limited number of clinical environments available for placement.

Long Term Care (LTC) / Supportive Living (SL): During this longitudinal experience you will follow patients over the course of the year with two half day clinics per family medicine block for a total of ten visits over the course of your first year in residency. This opportunity provides experience with family medicine in long-term care/supportive living settings. This is an opt-in learning experience.

FM-Addictions Plus: Clinical time will be spent in your home clinic for four and a half days per week for three weeks with one week away from your home clinic in clinical settings that provide an opportunity to increase your knowledge and skill in assessing and managing patients with addiction diagnoses.  This block includes a family medicine mental health lab (FM MHL).

Longitudinal Indigenous Health: This is a longitudinal experience that will allow you to spend time in an Indigenous Health learning environment, focusing on the social and clinical needs of the community in which you are placed. You will attend this learning environment two half days per family medicine block over the course of your first year of residency. An application for this elective experience is required at the beginning of the academic year, given the limited number of clinical environments available for placement.

Long Term Care (LTC) / Supportive Living (SL): During this longitudinal experience you will follow patients over the course of the year with two half day clinics per family medicine block for a total of ten visits over the course of your first year in residency. This opportunity provides experience with family medicine in long-term care/supportive living settings. This is an opt-in learning experience.

Pediatrics (PEDS): At either Alberta Children’s Hospital or Peter Lougheed Centre you will provide comprehensive team-based care for pediatric patients admitted with a variety of health concerns.  This block includes call.

Internal Medicine (IM): In the hospital setting you will work with a team (including clinical clerks, residents, fellows, allied health staff, consulting physicians, etc.) to provide comprehensive care to patients admitted to the medical teaching units at one of the four hospitals in Calgary. This block includes call.

Pediatric Emergency Medicine: Through a combination of emergency department shifts and other educational sessions you will continue to develop skills and knowledge to manage pediatric patients with acute presentations of illness, injury, and trauma. This block includes evening and weekend commitments.

Care of the Elderly: You will gain experience in assessing and managing older adults with multiple comorbidities as well as functional, cognitive, or psychosocial issues at one of the clinical sites in Calgary that has an emphasis on care of the older adult.  

FM- Urgent Care: During shifts at one of the urgent cares in Calgary and area you will assess and manage patients with common urgent care presenting complaints. This block includes a family medicine mental health lab (FM MHL). This block includes evening and weekend commitments.

FM Enriched: Clinical time will be spent in your home clinic for four and a half days per week for three weeks. One week will be spent away from your home clinic in clinical settings that provide an opportunity to further address your individual learning needs such as chronic pain clinic, addictions medicine, urgent care, palliative care etc.  This block includes a family medicine mental health lab (FM MHL). This block may include call.

Palliative Care: In the hospital setting you will gain experience managing physical, psychological and social concerns of palliative care patients’ and their families within a multi-disciplinary team. This block includes call.

Hospitalist: In the hospital setting you will provide comprehensive care to patients admitted with a variety of medical conditions at one of the four hospitals in Calgary. This block includes call.

FM- Adult: Clinical time will be spent in your home clinic for four and a half days per week for three weeks.  One week is spent away from your home clinic in various subspecialty clinics (ENT, GI, cardiology, women’s health, dermatology etc.). This block allows exposure to some specialty areas to encourage you to incorporate the skills and knowledge gain in these settings into your family medicine practice. This block includes a family medicine mental health lab (FM MHL). There is no after-hours commitment for this block.

By spending time in a variety of settings you will continue to improve your family medicine skills and knowledge during this block. Clinical time is divided between the home clinic site, a community site and an after-hours setting such as urgent care of an after-hours clinic. A community site is a comprehensive family medicine clinic where teaching may be with one preceptor (possibly at multiple clinics) or at one clinic with multiple preceptors (with one preceptor as the evaluator). This block includes a family medicine mental health lab (FM MHL).  This block includes evening and weekend commitments

MSK/LR OB: Two weeks of the rotation are spent in an outpatient setting where you will gain experience with assessment and management of common musculoskeletal concerns. An additional two weeks are spent in the low-risk obstetrics hospital setting gaining additional experience with antepartum, delivery and post-partum. This block includes call.

CCU/ICU: This is an opt-in experience where you will learn skills and knowledge to manage acute patient admitted to the ICU or CCU. Note that this rotation would be in place of one elective block. This block includes call.

Rural: Gain valuable experience in comprehensive family medicine at one rural site. Depending on the site you will spend time in obstetrics, inpatient medicine, emergency medicine, surgery in addition to family medicine clinic.  Other clinical learning opportunities may include GP anaesthesia and visiting specialist clinic experiences (ie. Psychiatry, Orthopeodics, Gen Surg, Internal Medicine). This block includes call.

Rural: Gain valuable experience in comprehensive family medicine at one rural site. Depending on the site you will spend time in obstetrics, inpatient medicine, emergency medicine, surgery in addition to family medicine clinic.  Other clinical learning opportunities may include GP anaesthesia and visiting specialist clinic experiences (ie. Psychiatry, Orthopeodics, Gen Surg, Internal Medicine). This block includes call.