Fellowships

Prospective fellowship applicants must provide the following in their application package:

• Copy of Medical degree (original and English translated version if applicable)
• Copy of Specialist degree (original and English translated version if applicable)
• Letter of intent
• Up-to-date Curriculum Vitae
• 3 original letters of reference sent directly from referees (English translated if applicable)
• English proficiency results

Please submit applications no later than September 30 for a fellowship start date of July 1 the next year.

All applications and further questions may directed to:

Ms. Kim Asselstine 
Queen's University 
Department of Anesthesiology  
Kingston General Hospital 
76 Stuart Street 
Kingston, Ontario 
K7L 2V7 
Canada 
Tel: (613)-548-2482 
E-mail: Kim.Asselstine@kingstonhsc.ca 

Overview

This fellowship is designed to provide enhanced broad-based clinical training and responsibility beyond the certification level as well as offers clinical research opportunities. It is intended to meet the needs of those interested in pursuing either an academic career or in furthering their clinical skills prior to entering clinical practice. Fellows will primarily practice independently, however, attending staff will be immediately available.

Specific Objectives

At the completion of this program, the fellow will be able to:

• Manage anesthetics in a wide variety of elective and emergency situations in the operating room. There are also opportunities to participate outside of the operating room (e.g. labour and delivery, acute pain service, cardioversions, radiology suite (diagnostic and interventional) and pre-operative assessment clinics)
• Manage anesthetics for patients with severe co-morbidities and/or having complicated surgical procedures
• Provide anesthesia consultation services to other specialties
• Work appropriately with interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams in the perioperative setting
• Manage learners and their educational needs in the operating room (e.g. residents, medical students and paramedical personnel)

If a fellow has an interest in a particular subspecialty of anesthesiology, that should be brought to the attention of the coordinator within the first two months. At that time, we will aim to designate up to 25% of their clinical time to that area of interest, and enlist support from faculty members in that subspecialty. Further efforts will be made to develop reading lists and research projects to help increase the fellow's expertise in that area.

Expectations

Fellows will spend approximately 80% of their time in the clinical environment. They will be expected to manage their cases independently, however they will always have a supervising staff on site for consultation and assistance. They will also be expected to supervise and teach medical students, residents and respiratory therapy/anesthesia assistant students in the operating room setting. Fellows will be expected to do some late call during the week (Monday to Friday), but no weekend or unsupervised night work.

Approximately 20% of their time will be spent on clinical research or study. Fellows are expected to participate in at least one research or scholarly project, with the goal of completing their project by the end of the year and submitting the results for publication and/or presentation at a recognized conference.

Fellows are expected to participate in the academic activities of the department including rounds, conferences and journal clubs. Specifically, they will be expected to present one Grand Rounds and one core resident teaching session (together with a staff member). They will also be expected to participate in weekly case management rounds, presenting at least once over the year. These cases will then be open for discussion from the other fellows, residents and staff members. There will also be bi-monthly chart reviews with the fellow, the fellowship coordinator and the program director where the fellow will be asked questions pertinent to specific charts that are pulled for the occasion. This will be more a 'one-on-one' style in order to ascertain the fellow's knowledge base, judgment and decision-making ability.

The fellowship year is designed to improve your skills as an anesthesiologist and further your career. To meet that end, the programme is constantly being revised and modified to suit the individual's needs. Please make those needs known to the fellowship coordinator, and we will do our best to design your fellowship to optimize your experience.

Queen’s Anesthesia and Simulation

The Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Queen’s has been performing high fidelity simulation for more than a decade. There are 9 anesthesiologists involved directly in simulation for resident education, including 4 with simulation fellowships. Additional involvement includes high fidelity and skills training for undergraduate clinical clerks and high fidelity interprofessional and interdisciplinary training for nurses, anesthesia assistants and other surgical subspecialties, respectively. The Clinical Simulation Centre at the Faculty of Health Sciences building is a fully staffed, functional and RCPSC accredited centre containing access to all simulation resources.

Goals of the Fellowship:

Graduating fellows from this program will depart with the knowledge, skills and abilities to provide simulation-based education, to utilize educational theory and to pursue research in the field of healthcare simulation. They will have sufficient skills to enhance the education of healthcare trainees and practitioners.

3 Pillar Approach:

The curriculum is based on 3 major pillars: Simulation-based education, educational theory pertaining to simulation, and simulation-based research. Each pillar in turn contains a number of major concepts that will be covered.

Objectives:

By the end of this one year fellowship the graduate will be able to:

• Describe the importance of simulation-based education in the development of safe, effective healthcare providers and patient care. This includes knowledge about the history of simulation in healthcare, different simulation modalities, crisis resource management, interprofessional and interdisciplinary team training, and the role of simulation in patient safety.
• Develop simulation curricula for the purpose of educating healthcare personnel, based on sound principles of curriculum development, and keeping in mind the level of the learner and the purpose of the educational event.
• Coordinate and implement simulation sessions for a multitude of learners. This includes working with a technical team and actors to deliver scenarios, observing behaviors of the participants during the sessions, as well as performing post-scenario debriefs.
• Apply educational theory pertinent to simulation-based education in the development of learning events and for research. These include, but are not limited to, deliberate practice, mastery, experiential learning, self-regulated learning, and the theory of adult learning.
• Describe the role of assessment in simulation-based education, including assessment strategies applied to simulation-based events, as well as using simulation as an assessment strategy in itself. This includes both formative and summative applications.
• Apply knowledge of quantitative and/or qualitative research methods to complete a simulation-based research project. Additional help with research methodology comes from the support of Queen’s Office of Health Sciences Education.