The Department of Family Medicine, Division of Palliative Care, has been offering a Palliative Care Traineeship program for practicing physicians, since 2008. It was originally created as a full “change of scope of practice” training program for practicing physicians who wished to gain a level of skills near equivalency to a residency Year of Added Competency (YAC) in Palliative Medicine. The Traineeship has evolved now to also include, and in fact, prioritize entry for practicing Family Physicians who wish to gain an enhanced Palliative Care skill set that would allow them to take on focused practice palliative care either within their family practice or across their local community. The Traineeship is also offered to RCPS physicians who also wish to gain enhanced skills in palliative care to take on focused palliative care work in their hospitals and local institutions. It was originally created in consultation with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO).
The Traineeship is based on the same competencies of the YAC in Palliative Medicine at McMaster. The intake process is robust to ensure that the existing skills and the needs of the candidate can be well assessed for fit with the program. As this is a competency-based training program, rather than a time-based program, the length of time and the competencies to be achieved is completely customized for each candidate. It is the first such competency-based Traineeship affiliated with a Division of Palliative Care at a Canadian university. There is a rolling intake for the program, thus candidates can apply at any time of year. Effort is made to ensure that sufficient training takes place with approved faculty as close to the candidates home community as possible, to both minimize travel and also assist with local awareness and future practice goals. For physicians wishing to change scope of practice, the Traineeship is longer and more robust and done in collaboration with CPSO. For physicians wishing to maintain their current medical scope but add Palliative Care as an accepted enhanced skills set, CPSO is contacted at the completion of the Traineeship by the physician. All trainees who have successfully complete the program received a diploma-style acknowledgement from the Division of Palliative Care.
2023 Traineeship Call for Applications
Denise Marshall BSc., MD, CCFP(PC), FCFP |Professor
Faculty Development & Traineeship Lead