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Family Medicine

Care of Elderly

Through this program, residents’ clinical knowledge skills and attitudes required for high quality care of the elderly (COE), evidence-based medicine skills, experience in interdisciplinary care, and leadership skills for the care of the elderly within the community. Each resident will identify and develop specific skills in research, education or administration/health policies. This program is accredited by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and will be offered to residents nationally. Funding for this PGY3 year is available through the urban stream. The current active training site is Hamilton.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Time available: Two12-month positions (1 Hamilton, 1 Niagara)

Learning experiences available:

  1. Hospital in-patient unit
  2. Geriatric Assessment Unit
  3. Out-patient consultation clinic
  4. Palliative care
  5. Geriatric psychiatry
  6. In-patient geriatric consultations
  7. Clinical pharmacology
  8. Wound care
  9. Long-term care

Mandatory longitudinal academic component (one half day a week): Weekly seminar program and journal club with residents from the Division of Geriatric medicine.

Mandatory longitudinal primary care experience (one half day a week): A mandatory primary care experience in long-term care (LTC) is expected during a second protected half-day. This experience will be for six months during the PGY3 program. The entire experience should occur in one LTC home, however, a minimum of 12 weeks should be undertaken at any one LTC site prior to switching sites. A local on-site LTC physician will supervise the PGY3 resident. For the additional six months, a PGY3 resident will have a longitudinal family medicine clinic half day back. Because an overarching goal of the program is to develop family physicians that have additional expertise in caring for the elderly, this continuity experience is mandated to maintain the PGY3 resident’s competency and skills in the other areas of general family medicine during this training year.

Mandatory scholarly component: These blocks will be offered under the supervision of the PGY3 COE Program Director, and can include work towards a self-directed research project, curriculum development, fostering leadership and community engagement. This component will be scheduled in the second half of the 12-month program. A scholarly project, with deliverables, will be developed in consultation with the PGY3 COE Program director. Concurrent with the scholarly component will be the academic half-day, the LTC or family medicine clinic half day, and a full day horizontal wound care experience.

SAMPLE SCHEDULES

Sample Care of the Elderly 12 month Schedule:

Total Blocks, 13

Learning experience Number of blocks
Medically Complex/Restorative Care/Behavioural Health Unit

  • Horizontal clinical experience
  • Located in hospital-based units led by Family Medicine faculty
 2
Inpatient consultations 1
Outpatient consultations 2
Geriatric psychiatry 1
Palliative Care 1
Clinical pharmacology 1
Electives 2
Academic block
-Scholarly component (2-3 days a week)
-One half day AHD
-One half day LTC/FM clinic
-One and a half to two days horizontal wound care experience		 3

CONTACT US

Program Director: Dr. Henry Siu

For further program details please contact: Connie Shen Shenk9@mcmaster.ca