Special Interest Elective Policy

The postgraduate program is supportive of assisting residents gaining skills in specific areas where residents feel they are deficient or wish additional training. The purpose of this document is to outline specific requirements and structure for these elective experiences.

Purpose

Special Interest Electives are NOT considered part of the core residency training or requirement. The purpose of these electives is to enhance residents’ knowledge/skills is specific areas related to the practice of family medicine.

Structure

1) Time:

• Occurs after regular working hours (i.e. approximately 8-5 pm) during family medicine block time
• Will be offered 3 times per year as resources permit (i.e. every 4 months)

2) # of participants:

• 6-8 residents (depending on the elective and instructor preferences. There will be a minimum # of residents required before the elective will take place
• Each resident can only take each elective once

3) Ongoing Development and Maintenance:

• Such electives will be the responsibility of the Academic Program Director and the Academic Program Sub-Committee

Funding

Final funding decisions will reside with the Departmental Financial Committee.

• Postgraduate program will generally provide start-up costs of up to $1000
• Ongoing/maintenance costs (not instructor fees) are expected to be minimal and may require further approval
• Postgraduate program will pay instructors at the same rate as our academic program teachers, i.e. $400 per session. Given the # of residents, it is not expected that more than 1 instructor will be paid per session
• If an elective require costs above and beyond the above, residents who are interested may use their conference provided by the Department of Family Medicine for this ($200 in PGY1, $400 in PGY2)

Setting Up Special Interest Electives 

• Any faculty or resident can submit a proposal to the Postgraduate Education Committee (and if approved, will go to Finance Management Committee) that contains the following:
• Background / Rationale (for the particular special interest elective)
• Structure:
• Time
• Dates
• # of sessions
• Instructors
• # of minimum participants and # of expected participants
• Detailed budget outlining costs