Program Overview
Well Resourced
The Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) Subspecialty Program at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, affiliated with the University of Calgary, is fully accredited with the Royal College and has been training subspecialty residents for over 15 years. We are very fortunate to have a well-resourced emergency department (ED) in our stand-alone pediatric hospital that sees over 77,000 patients per year. We are the designated regional trauma centre for all children aged 0-14 years, thus providing our fellows with ample pediatric trauma exposure. Our residents spend time at both the Alberta Children's Hospital as well as the pediatric pod of the South Health Campus Hospital, allowing our residents to see a range of presentations unique to a children's hospital but also a general emergency department.
Hands-On Exposure
Nearly all procedures performed in our ED are performed by emergency physicians (and their trainees) rather than consulting services. For example, all fracture reductions, intubations, chest tube insertions, and minor plastics procedures are performed by emergency physicians unless the ED staff requests assistance. Our emergency physicians and fellows also act as our Trauma Team Leader for trauma team activations. This allows our fellows ample opportunity to perform procedures and develop their skills in trauma leadership.
Cutting Edge Expertise
Our program has been progressive about making innovative changes in our curriculum and assessment with the anticipated future transition to competency-based education at the national level. Each fellow is well supported with a respective designated academic coach (longitudinal preceptor) throughout his/her training. Fellows work with a group of highly trained and energetic teaching staff with a variety of educational backgrounds, with over half of our faculty having obtained their Royal College (or American) credentials in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. The remaining faculty has primary training in either Pediatrics or Emergency Medicine. We have a very strong relationship with our adult emergency medicine colleagues and training program and benefit from their added expertise.
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