Under Competence by Design, residency training is composed of four (4) stages in additional to Surgical Foundations. These stages are: Transition to Discipline, Foundations of Discipline, Core of Discipline and Transition to Practice. It is expected that residents will complete their residency training with a five (5) year framework.
Surgical foundations training includes 8 periods of non-Urology rotations, i.e. General Surgery, ICU, Surgical Foundations Boot Camp, Transplant Nephrology, Trauma Surgery and Vascular Surgery. These periods are usually done during the PGY1 year of training.
PGY1
- Urology: 5 periods
- Off-service rotations: General Surgery, ICU, Surgical Foundations Boot Camp, Transplant Nephrology, Trauma Surgery and Vascular Surgery
PGY2-5, Urology rotations including:
- Cedars Uro-oncology (Glen MUHC)
- Royal Victoria Hospital (Glen MUHC and Lachine Hospital): Endourology, Reconstructive urology, and Infertility and Sexual Medicine, penile and urethral reconstruction
- Montreal Children’s Hospital (Glen MUHC): Pediatric Urology
- Jewish General Hospital and Lasalle Hospital: Uro-oncology, Female pelvic medicine and neurourology, and Reconstructive urology
- St Mary’s Hospital: General Urology, and Infertility and Sexual Medicine (Community hospital rotation)
- PGY3: Research block, 3 months of basic or clinical science research in the Urology research laboratories (RI-MUHC, Lady Davis Institute, etc) (See details below)
- PGY4: 1-3 periods of optional outside elective rotations
During the PGY-3 year, residents are encouraged to participate in a 3-month Investigative Urology rotation, which consists of laboratory – based research in one of six (6) well-equipped and staffed laboratories. Each resident is directly supervised by a clinician- scientist ensuring adequate exposure to research and completion of a project. Successful residents are encouraged and supported in presenting their work at regional, national and international scientific meeting.
The McGill Division of Urology, under the direction of Dr. Simon Tanguay, functions as one integrated unit sharing in the teaching, research and clinical activities. Each hospital has a urology service with an established and recognized clinical expertise coupled with a well-funded fundamental-based research laboratory on site. Major areas of clinical expertise are grouped together in a particular site, enhancing the residents’ exposure to state-of-the-art clinical care. For example, urologic oncology/major reconstructive/laparoscopy/robotic surgery, female urology/urinary incontinence/neurourology, male infertility/andrology/male sexual dysfunction/penile reconstruction and urethroplasty, pediatric urology, and endourology/calculous disease, compose the 4 major clinical foci within the department. In addition, a large volume of general urology is practiced in each site. Residents are exposed to several specialty clinics in these clinical areas, including the Prostate Centre, Stone Clinic, Urodynamics, Erectile Dysfunction, Infertility, Multi-disciplinary Urologic Oncology, and Female Urology. During the recent years our training sites have expanded to include Lachine and Lasalle Hospitals opening a great opportunity to an immense and diverse surgical and clinical exposure.
Our program provides a Royal college fully accredited training environment. Residents progress through their training to acquire Both Surgical Foundation and Urology competencies as required by the Royal College. Royal College Entrusted professional activities (EPAs) are mapped to each specific training site. Moreover, each rotation has specific teaching objectives for each level, and workload is properly defined by stage/level of training to ensure a proper acquisition of knowledge, technical skills and clinical responsibility. The department holds many clinical and teaching rounds and the residents have ample exposure to structured teaching. During each week, 3 individual teaching sessions and clinical rounds are held throughout the year. Electronic platforms are provided to record EPAs and case logs. Residents are also evaluated via summative and formative feedback, structured mid- and end of rotation in-training assessments, as well as bi-annual OSCEs. The program is designed to fulfill both the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada and the American Board of Urology requirements of certification.
The faculty members of the Department include 22 urologists, 1 pathologist, 5 Ph.D. scientists and 1 radiation oncologist. All faculty are fellowship-trained in either Urologic Oncology, Endourology, Erectile Dysfunction, Transplantation, Pediatric Urology, and Female Urology/Incontinence and are actively involved in one-to-one teaching.
The goal of the McGill Urology Residency Training Program is to train competent urologists of high caliber with an emphasis on academic excellence. Indeed, many graduates continue to fellowship in other North American Centers, and several have received prestigious awards and honors.
Over the past 5 years, 80% of our graduates secures post-training fellowship of whom 50% secured academic practice and 50% went to community practice. Twenty percent of our graduates went directly for community urology practice without fellowship in USA and Quebec.
Finally, Montreal is an exciting multi-cultural metropolis with the McGill Teaching Hospitals situated within walking distance of the heart of the city.
Requests for further information should be directed to:
Dr. Mélanie Aubé-Peterkin
Program Director
c/o McGill Urology Residency Training Program Office
urologyresidency.med [at] mcgill.ca