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Rural Stream

The McMaster Rural Stream program is run collaboratively with the McMaster Department of Family Medicine, McMaster Community and Rural Education Program (MacCare) and the Rural Ontario Medical Program (ROMP). The program is designed to prepare residents for rural practice by providing a combination of core and elective postgraduate training to meet the individual needs of each resident with a recognition of varying patterns of practice in different rural family practice settings. Our goal is ensuring our rural graduates can take their skills to any rural or remote environment and provide care to residents of any community. Residency training is structured around core educational objectives with emphasis placed firmly on organized self-learning, with appropriate faculty assistance for guidance and supervision. We host a strong Rural Resident Simulation-Based curriculum targeted for rural practice ensures comfort with skills that may not be used on a daily basis. Sites within the program are of varying size and local resources. This provides residents with the ability to choose a site and develop appropriate skills for the type of community for which they wish to provide care in the future. Each site is part of the greater rural stream but has a local academic hub assigned where residents attend their weekly academic content. There is a Rural Curriculum including sim-based learning, palliative, obstetrics, and needs identified through our learners that are run throughout the year and our Spring and Fall retreats where we get to connect and hone in on our rural community and educational needs. 

Applicants are encouraged to consider the importance of obstetrical, anesthesia, and emergency care provision in rural settings as they plan their rural residency and future careers. Inpatient care is a daily part of a rural medicine life and this will be reflected in your residency training. The Rural Stream Program will do everything possible to ensure excellent training for residents committed to comprehensive care provision.

Program Highlights

  • A choice of six different sites with several smaller communities in which you live and learn during your two years of family medicine
  • Excellent specialty rotations in rural/regional hospitals
  • Complete academic program delivered through a hybrid model virtually and in-person
  • Simulation and Rural Retreats focussed on advanced rural skills
  • Enhanced emergency room and airway skills development
  • Opportunity to train in remote area in PGY2 year
  • Experienced rural family physician teachers who are skilled at in-patient care while providing obstetrical, emergency and/or anesthesia care to their communities.
  • Flexible curriculum options available to increase time spent in your community 
  • The training and mentorship to build skills and the clinical courage necessary to pursue a successful career in rural medicine

Note:

  • It is a program requirement that residents live in the community for their Family Medicine blocks throughout residency.
  • All CMG rural applicants are required to submit a rural addendum as part of their CaRMS application. Addendums are scored separately. It will have an adverse effect on your overall rural application score if the addendum is not included in your application.

Key info

Locations

Learn more about our individual rural sites:

PGY1

  • 20 weeks Rural Family Medicine (broad scope exposure inpatient, out-patient and community rural family medicine with obstetrics, emergency medicine, and/or anesthesia)
  • 8 weeks each of Internal Medicine/Hospitalist, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Pediatrics in-patient and out-patient, and Emergency Medicine

PGY2

  • 20 weeks of Rural Family Medicine (same practice as PGY1 year improves continuity and building independence across settings)
  • 8 weeks each of Internal Medicine/Surgery Selective, Remote/Rural rotation
  • 4 weeks Care of the Elderly,
  • 12 weeks  Electives

“Our residents are distributed across 6 different sites, but form a cohesive unit of rural residents! They work together and with their preceptors to gain comfort with uncertainty, excellence in procedural skills, and form lifelong connections that follow them into their career. Training at our rural sites ensures you gain the skills to be a practicing physician in any environment you choose!” – Nagham El-houssein, Rural Site Director 

Contacts

Nagham El-houssein

Assistant Clinical Professor

Site Director, Rural Stream

Lisa Law

Senior Education Associate

lawl4@mcmaster.ca
Rural