The College of Medicine, while physically located in Saskatoon, is a provincial resource in attitude and in practice. Postgraduate medical education at the University of Saskatchewan takes seriously its role in supporting quality health care to all people of the province in order to meet the needs of urban, rural and remote populations. To meet these objectives, the College of Medicine has developed distributed training programs in Regina, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, North Battleford, Prince Albert and La Ronge. Residents are encouraged to complete rotations at distributed sites within the province to enhance their knowledge and skills, and take maximum advantage of unique educational opportunities in a diversity of communities.

To find out more about the wide range of postgraduate training opportunities offered at the University of Saskatchewan, and to find program contacts, browse the program websites below.

Training Sites

Expansion Announcement

 

Competence by Design

Competence By Design (CBD) and Competency Based Medical Education (CBME)

Overview

The PGME CBD Office’s mandate is to facilitate the implementation of Competence by Design within the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada’s residency programs. We are here to support programs and residents in enabling the best that competency based medical education has to offer via:

  • Enabling program specific curriculum planning to ensure that each graduate has the skills they need for their future careers.
  • Enabling best practices within program competence committees to give programs the tools they need to ensure all graduates are successful at attaining their goals.
  • Facilitating a coaching culture allowing each learner the optimal environment for professional growth.
  • Facilitating connections between programs involved in competency based medical education to foster innovations and learning from each other.

Message from the Resident Lead Chairs

The Competence by Design (CBD) Resident Lead Advisory Council was created to allow for resident discussion and advocacy in anticipation of CBD implementation within each individual program.

It is comprised of a PGME support team, one CBD resident lead from each specialty program as well as a medical student representative. Each CBD resident lead has the responsibility to help lead their program's residents through curriculum transition, and the advisory council provides a unique tool to aid in this important task.

There are two main avenues through which the council functions to ease the transition to CBD, the first being feedback to the PGME support team. Communication regarding resident engagement and education strategies, and identification of potentially useful resources that the PGME can provide to enable a smooth transition have proven invaluable.

The second avenue is through cross-specialty resident collaboration. The inherent concept of CBD being a resident driven learning model has led to many education initiatives and learning tools being created by residents at a program level.

Sharing successes and failures of each program in their journey has allowed for early identification of potential issues and opportunities for growth as a group. The council will be hosting future events for residents in all programs to attend and learn more about the transition to CBD.

The CBD Resident Lead Advisory Council is also currently in the process of pursuing collective scholarship opportunities given the paucity of literature in the infancy of CBD.

We would like to thank the PGME and our programs for providing us with the opportunity to collaborate with our colleagues in this way.

- Dr. Quinten Paterson, PGY-4 Emergency Medicine, Dr. Scott Willms, PGY-4 Orthopedic Surgery, and Dr. Michal Gozdzik, PGY-3 Internal Medicine


Examples of CBD Achievements at USask

pgme---cbd-copy.png

The development of Entrustable Professional Activities reference cards
to support the implementation of Competence by Design in emergency medicine.

EJ Stoneham, L Witt, QS Paterson, LJ Martin, B Thoma

Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 1-4, 2019

Exploring and identifying factors that promote and impede successful EPA completion.

Project Leads – Lynsey Martin & Quinten Paterson
 

Workshops and peer mentoring to establish best practices for Competence Committees.

Project Leads – Lynsey Martin & Sharon Card
 

Developing a Dashboard to meet Competence Committee Needs:
A design-based research project. Canadian Medical Education Journal
(In-Press).

Thoma B, Bandi V, Carey R, Mondal D, Woods R, Martin L, Chan TM

Published 2020

Watch: Developing a Dashboard to meet Competence Committee Needs

CBD PGME Office Activities

The CBD PGME Office is here to support and provide resource for discipline specific teams.

CBD PGME

Please contact pgme.cbd@usask.ca to:

  • Book a workshop.
  • Arrange educational sessions.
  • Arrange for specific resources.
  • Assist with problem solving around CBD, for example ePortfolio.

We look forward to working with you!

For Quick Start guides, and how to download the Elentra App visit the PGME Training webpage.

USask Links:
If you are a USask CBD implementer, the following link will take you to our Competence by Design SharePoint page. Here you can access Competence by Design resources and templates, upcoming workshops and events, and all other CBD related material.

National/External Links:
 Additional Resources on Triple C:

Dr. Lynsey Martin
CBD Lead, PGME
Phone: 306-966-1640

Chastin Miller
Clerical, Academic & Wellness Processes
Phone: 306-966-5557

Accreditation Status

The College of Medicine is bound to the standards of accreditation and must meet certain criteria in order to remain an accredited university to teach medicine.

The Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC), the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), and the Collège des médecins de Québec have partnered and established the Canadian Residency Accreditation Consortium (CanRAC) for Canadian residency education. All residency program in Canada are now accredited on 8-year cycle. The continuous quality improvement is imperative. The Postgraduate Medical Education Office must uphold the General Standards of Accreditation for Institutions and the Specialty Programs/Family Medicine programs must uphold the General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs.

All our active residency training programs are accredited for training.

To learn more about the Accreditation of Residency Education and discipline-specific standards, select a link below:
Canadian Excellence in Residency Accreditation (CanERA); Accreditation Standards (for institutions, residency programs); Discipline-specific Standards

Internal Review Process

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) and the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) conduct regular on-site accreditation visits to ensure the quality of the residency programs at the University of Saskatchewan.  In order to prepare for these visits and to identify strengths and areas for improvement, an internal review process has been established.

Internal reviews are an integral component of the accreditation process at the University of Saskatchewan and are conducted at least two years prior to the regular RCPSC/CFPC visits.  These internal reviews are intended as a mechanism to assist the university in maintaining the quality of its residency programs.  They also provide the Postgraduate Medical Education Office and Program Directors with valuable information about their programs and enable them to take corrective measures to address any weaknesses before the next RCPSC/CFPC survey.           

 

Educational Resources

Residents

The following resources are intended for residents and residency programs.

CanMEDS Role: Communicator: The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada

1. Verbal Communication Foundations

2. Written Communication Foundations

3. Communication Skills Workshop

These communication skills workshops were developed by Dr. Mark Inman and Dr. Ayisha Kurji for the Pediatrics residency program. They are interactive half-day sessions facilitated by various pediatric faculty held on a three-year cycle. Workshops will address a variety of communication-related topics with discussion-based and practice-based components.

Most of the examples are pediatrics-specific, but the workshops can be customized for other specialties. Programs should contact Ope Okunola, PGME Educational Programs Coordinator if assistance is required for this.

Chief Residents

The following resources are intended for chief residents.