Family Medicine at the Northumberland Family Medicine Teaching Unit is a community-based program that uses the preceptor model in family medicine as well as all specialty rotations. The preceptor model, and extensive use of office and hospital-based teaching, places emphasis on a quality family medicine residency experience.

 CORE FAMILY MEDICINE ROTATION

Residents work in busy private community-based family practices within the Greater Moncton Area. Working directly with their preceptors, residents develop their own panel of patients who they see in-office, in hospital, during house calls or nursing home visits, and frequently while working on specialty rotations.

1st Year

The core family medicine rotation consists of eight weeks in the first year of the program, and is spent with a Moncton-based core family medicine preceptor. Throughout the remainder of the first year while on specialty rotations, our residents spend one half day per week in their core family medicine practice, in order to develop their own panel of patients and to gain a better understanding of continuity of care.

2nd Year

In second year, the core family medicine rotation is usually in the same practice as the PGY1 experience. All residents complete the core rotation from February to May. The CCFP exams occur during this period, as does the Resident Research Project Day. The core didactic curriculum for second year is presented on Friday afternoons during this period, and assists the residents with exam preparation.

COMMUNITY FAMILY MEDICINE

At the Northumberland Unit, an emphasis is placed on training family physicians who are comfortable practising in rural settings. In order to accomplish this goal, the Northumberland Unit has developed a close collaboration with a group of family physicians in Eastern New Brunswick, Northern Nova Scotia, and on PEI. These family doctors actively participate in faculty development and program administration with Moncton-based Northumberland preceptors.

Our family medicine residents are exposed early in their first year to four weeks of community-based family medicine. In second year, there is a 12-week community rotation, and residents are encouraged to return to the same rural community they visited in first year. In general, residents look forward to reconnecting with the patients, staff, and community they met in their first year. However, in order to ensure that individual needs of residents are met, residents have the opportunity to do their PGY2 community rotation with any community-based preceptor in the Maritimes.

CORE SPECIALTY ROTATIONS

Specialty rotations are well reviewed by family medicine residents at the Northumberland Unit. One of the strengths of the Northumberland Unit is that all first- and second-year year core specialty rotations take place at The Moncton Hospital.

At the Moncton Hospital, there are few specialty residents being trained at any given time. As a result, family medicine residents have unlimited exposure to patients and learning opportunities. Our physicians are not required to teach in order to maintain their hospital privileges; therefore, our specialty preceptors are all physicians who have chosen to teach as part of their practices. As a result, we have are fortunate to have a very enthusiastic group of specialty faculty.