Curriculum

Comprehensive and flexible to suit your specific interests

The typical residency experience in our Subspecialty Residency Training Program, which is accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, includes:

Each block is four weeks in duration

• 12 blocks of clinical adult and pediatric infectious diseases
• 3 blocks or equivalent of Infection Prevention and Control or Antimicrobial Stewardship
• 1 block of public health rotation
• 3 blocks in the microbiology laboratory

In the remaining seven blocks, residents may choose selectives to tailor their training to meet their ultimate career goals. During this time residents may conduct clinical or basic research, gain more experience in infectious disease consultation or explore special interests relevant to the study of infectious diseases. Interested residents are able to do electives in other relevant settings.

The 12 blocks of clinical training primarily involve inpatient consultations at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, but also include two four-week blocks in pediatric infectious diseases at the IWK Health Centre. There is an option to participate in rotations at The Moncton Hospital or Saint John Regional Hospital where residents gain experience in a community- and hospital-based infectious diseases practice. An integral longitudinal clinical experience in both general infectious disease and HIV medicine rounds out the training.

Residents spend three months in the microbiology laboratory (both adult and pediatric). This experience includes an innovative in-lab microbiology course that brings together infectious diseases residents with residents in medical microbiology, pediatric infectious diseases and general pathology. Together they participate in focused bench-side training and self-directed seminars.

Academic activities

In addition to ongoing bedside and in-clinic teaching experiences, organized teaching activities include:

• an academic half day that is typically shared with pediatric infectious diseases and microbiology residents (weekly)
• a clinical case conference (weekly)
• an infectious diseases journal club (twice monthly)
• morbidity and mortality review (quarterly)
• topic reviews (every two months)
• a clinical microbiology journal club (monthly, when on laboratory rotations)
• infectious diseases learning exams (twice weekly for three months at the beginning of training)

Given the small size of our program, we are able to help residents pursue particular areas of interest and meet their professional goals. Our program includes numerous opportunities for collaborative learning with other subspecialty residents in ethics, research methodologies and practice management.