ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL
Location: 201 Georgian Drive, Barrie
Quick Facts
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Number of Residents: 4 in 2009, 10 in 2010, 15 in 2011, 18 in 2012
Name of Teaching Site(s): Royal Victoria Hospital Family Medicine Teaching Unit
Curriculum Type: Horizontal/longitudinal (residents maintain a family practice three ½ days per week throughout the 2year program)
Hospital Type: Large Community
PGY1 Elective/Selective Months: 1
PGY2 Elective/Selective Months: 4
Program Highlights
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Manage your own practice in a new Family Medicine Teaching Unit with an electronic medical record
Learn through a flexible curriculum and call schedule structured within a horizontal teaching model
Deliver comprehensive care to a broad patient population in an office and hospital setting
Work in a non-competitive, non-service residency environment that offers maximum practical learning opportunities
Live in an energetic, vibrant young city with four season recreational amenities and affordable cost-of-living within 45 minutes of Toronto and
Muskoka
Overview Re: Hospital, Community, Teaching Unit and Program
Royal Victoria Hospital, a 297 bed, primarily acute-care community hospital, offers a broad range of programs and services in
Canada’s fastest growing city. RVH has the second busiest Emergency Department in the province, with nearly 70,000 visits
annually and averages 2400 births a year. The hospital is undergoing an expansion that will double its size, including 101
additional inpatient beds, larger Emergency Department, Imaging, Laboratory and a Regional Cancer Centre.
Many of the family medicine teaching unit instructors are part of the Barrie Community Family Health Team, one of the largest
in the province, and offers a multi-disciplinary team approach to patient care.
The new teaching unit, where residents will manage their own practice of up to 300 patients each, is located on the hospital
site. The combination of teaching unit, hospital rotations and other community placements offers an excellent mix of inpatient
and outpatient experiences to maximize the resident’s training.
Due to the limited number of specialty residents and undergraduates, our family medicine residents will enjoy the benefits of
functioning as primary house staff and the hands-on learning opportunities this offers. Instruction is provided by teachers with
vast experience in core rotation and family medicine training. Highly skilled and enthusiastic sub-specialty instructors, working
directly with residents, will provide a broad, comprehensive and rewarding experience. These learning interactions create
mentor-student relationships that foster confidence and competency in patient and practice management.
The RVH experience will include internal medicine, pediatrics, mental health, obstetrics, women’s health, surgery, emergency
medicine, palliative / oncology and more. Due to the dynamic and flexible nature of the program, residents will be able to tailor
their call schedule to best suit their needs and learning objectives.
Residents will participate in academic sessions that will be coordinated between Barrie’s medical staff, other U of T teaching
sites, and U of T core days.
Barrie is a vibrant, young city with a spectacular waterfront, abundance of golf, skiing, hiking and biking trails, plus many dining
and entertainment amenities. The city also offers an affordable cost of living and a highly collegial, social and active medical
community.
Testimonials
1) “My experience at Royal Victoria Hospital introduced me to a broad patient population and the opportunity to
perform hands-on procedures. I had ample practice in sports medicine, palliative care and the opportunity for
house calls. I found the combination of family practice with hospital care to be incredibly valuable in my training.”
Dr. Paul Szpakowski PGY2
Curriculum
Family Medicine
In this horizontal model, the resident will spend three half days each week in the Family Medicine Teaching Unit managing
and maintaining their own practice over their two year residency. The Teaching Unit is part of the Barrie Community Family
Health Team, offering a team, multi-disciplinary approach to patient care and learning. Family medicine enrichment
opportunities in the areas of office procedures, dermatology, community and public health, accessing resources in the
community, just to name a few, will be offered.
Residents will be able to experience many of Royal Victoria Hospital’s medical and surgical sub-specialties offering a wide
array of clinical expertise from highly skilled and knowledgeable physicians.
Internal Medicine
Residents will have ample learning opportunities in ICU medicine; sub-specialty clinics; one-on-one consult medicine plus
inpatient management
Emergency
Residents will experience working three shifts per week in the province’s second busiest Emergency Department with CCFP
(EM) teachers.
Obstetrics / Women’s health
Residents will do 24 hour call, averaging four to 10 births per shift. They will also participate in pre-natal and gynecological
clinics in the community.
Pediatrics
Residents will have ample opportunity for Emergency consultant on-call and working in the Well-Baby and Neonatology clinics.
Additionally opportunities exist in community pediatric clinics.
Musculoskeletal
The MSK rotation will allow residents to evaluate and manage musculoskeletal problems through sports medicine and
orthopedic specialists’ clinics.
In addition to these robust learning opportunities, the rotation schedule will include geriatrics, mental health,
palliative care and oncology, surgery and a selective/elective options.
Contacts
Program Director & Assistant
Dr. Stu Murdoch
Chief Residents
Not applicable
Tel: 705-722-0516
MurdochS@rvh.on.ca