Any student who has not done the mandatory 4 consecutive weeks of community placement during 3rd year must do it in 4th year.

Please visit the DME website for more information or contact them at [email protected]

During year 4, students will also have 2 weeks of vacation for the winter break and 3 weeks reserved for residency interviews.

2022–2023 Schedule

The 4th year schedule is divided into 6 groups and you will be assigned to one of these groups via a lottery.

The difference between the six groups is the period of dates for the mandatory selective.

Each group will have the same pathway from September to mid-November (first 10 weeks of electives), then the pathway will change depending on the groups.

Your choice must be based on your academic needs. For example, if you plan to attend a conference, you must ensure it is not during your mandatory selective as 100% attendance is required for the selective.

Note that the admission interviews will be held from February to March (with training in January or February), therefore you must be assigned to group 5 or group 6 if you want to participate.

See course schedule here.

There will be 2 lotteries for the organization of the 4th year program and they will be done through one45. These lotteries are very similar to the ones done for 3rd year.

1. The first lottery will be to match you to one of the 6 groups in the schedule.
2. The second lottery will be to match you to a subspecialty for your mandatory selectives.

Note both streams will be part of the same lotteries.

Your participation in both lotteries is important and must be made within the specified dates. If you don’t, one45 will assign you to an empty spot once the lottery is activated at the closure date. There won’t be any possibilities for you to do if after the closure date.

To ensure you won’t miss the deadline, one45 will send you a reminder.

But if it does not matter for you to be assigned to any of these groups, please do not participate in the lottery. Not participating will increase the chances of other students to be assigned to their first or second choice.

Lotteries Instructions

The instructions on how to proceed for the lotteries will be sent to you via you uOttawa e-mail address in early January.

First lottery – March 2022

Through that first lottery, you will rank the 6 groups you wish to be assigned to by order of preference. There will be a maximum of 28 students per group.

You will receive the result by e-mail a week or two after the closing date. If ever you are not satisfied with the result at that point, we will give you a period of one week to find a colleague (from both streams) that will accept to do a switch with you. Both will have to notify Christiane Raymond at [email protected].

After that period, your assignment to a group will be final and we will send you the new result.

Second lottery – May 2022 (To be confirmed)

Through that second lottery, you will rank all the subspecialties you wish to be assigned to by order of preference.

The process will be the same as for the first lottery.

Students in 4th year are required to do a 2-week rotation in a medicine subspecialty and a 2-week rotation in a surgery subspecialty at The Ottawa Hospital.

After finalizing the 4th year groups and schedule, each student will be asked, through a lottery, to pick their choices of internal medicine and of surgery subspecialties, within a certain time frame.

After the 2nd lottery, once these have been assigned and the internal medicine rotation schedule has been finalized, any spots that have not been filled will be made available for elective placements.

For further information, please contact the hospital coordinator.

Evaluations

You must send an evaluation to your preceptor (not a resident) at the beginning of each selective placement through your one45 account.

Please note that your evaluations will validate successful completion of your selectives.

Once you are assigned to a group, the second lottery will allow you to rank the following subspecialties (to be confirmed) for the mandatory Selective in Medicine:

• Cardiology
• Critical Care
• Endocrinology & Metabolism
• Gastroenterology
• Geriatrics
• Hematology
• Infectious Disease
• Medical Oncology
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• Palliative Medicine
• Physical Medicine & Rehab (TBC)
• Respirology
• Rheumatology

 Surgery Mandatory Selective

Once you are assigned to a group, the second lottery will allow you to rank the following subspecialties (to be confirmed) for the mandatory Selective in Surgery:

• Cardiac Surgery
• Colorectal
• Neurosurgery
• Oncology, Breast
• Oncology, Gynecology 
• Oncology, Thoracic 
• Oncology, Orthopedics
• Oncology, Urology
• Orthopaedics
• Paediatric Cardiovascular
• Paediatric General Surgery
• Paediatric Neurosurgery
• Pediatric Orthopaedics
• Paediatric Urology
• Pediatric Plastic Surgery
• Plastic (Only eligible students can select plastic)
• Thoracic
• Urology
• Vascular

In 4th year of medical school, you will have more freedom to adapt your clinical placements to meet your specific needs with regard to career choices.

The 18 weeks of electives in the 4th year is placement time that should be used to learn more about the discipline that may be selected for residency or to enhance competencies in a clinical field which was not sufficiently explored in the 3rd year. A majority of students use their elective time to explore possible residency programs or to make themselves known about the programs they are interested in.

One of the key elements to admission to a residency program is to have completed electives in the selected discipline. It is very unlikely that a student will be admitted to a residency program in a discipline for which they have not demonstrated an interest and commitment by doing 1 or 2 electives in the given specialty.   It is not necessary to complete an elective in every residency program in the country to be matched in that discipline. You can refer to the description of the programs on the CaRMS website for more information on what programs are looking for in their candidates. Electives in other areas including research are encouraged.

Each elective duration must be of 2 weeks. Exception for any EMERP and OPH electives that must be of 4 weeks duration.

While it is important to use this elective time to explore residency training programs, every effort should be made to diversify the electives and balance clinical strengths.

See the following resources to help in planning your career:

• Career planning
• Residency programs

General conditions

It is expected that an elective will be comprised of 35 hours per week.

You are required to complete a total of 18 weeks of electives before the end of 4th year. The only electives that will be counted toward the 18-week requirement are those that have been approved and entered in your Clinical Placement account and for which evaluations confirming successful completion have been received.

These electives can be either clinical or non-clinical in nature, however you are not allowed to do more than 4 weeks of non-clinical electives throughout 4th year.

Your supervisor must be a practicing physician, not a resident. - Consult the Conflict of interest in clinical placements policy

When planning your electives, make sure to follow the appropriate process for the service you are applying to as these can vary by school and location. It is best practice to communicate with all contacts via your uOttawa student email so that they can clearly identify you as a uOttawa student.

Electives in Ottawa/ Home School Electives

All the uOttawa electives are included in a list that will be provided to each student by email. Students must select from this list when creating their application for home school electives via the template provided by the Electives Office. The instructions regarding the requests for home school electives will be emailed to the students along with the list of opportunities and the submission template. All home school electives must be facilitated through the Electives Office.

Other elective resources

There are numerous options available to you when planning your electives. Other great resources can include:

• Rural Electives - For the academic year 2022-2023, only electives to ERMEP site are permitted. Application to be submitted through the Electives Office, then through your Clinical Placement account once approved.
• Non-Clinical Electives - You are not limited to clinical electives in 4th year. There are a variety of non-clinical electives offered during the year, including research electives which are a great way to get additional exposure to a specialty.

Cancellation Policy

Please select your elective carefully as switching or cancelling electives once they are booked is discouraged. If it is absolutely necessary to cancel an elective, you must notify the Electives Coordinator, department coordinator and/or preceptor in writing at least 5 weeks before the start of the elective. Failure to adhere to this policy will be considered a breach of professionalism and will be reported to the Director of Electives and the Assistant Dean - Academic Affairs, Undergraduate Medical Education.

In order to meet the accreditation requirements, all electives must be pre-approved by the Faculty of Medicine, Undergraduate Medical Education Office (Liaison Officer, Year 4) in order to be eligible and credited.

You must request approval for all your electives through your Clinical Placement account. All requests must be made at least one month prior the start of any elective. This will be monitored regularly.

If you do not have a pre-approved elective in your Clinical Placement account 2 weeks prior to a given date, it will be brought to the attention of the Clerkship Director.

Any changes to your registered approved electives must be done through your Clinical Placement account by entering a new request. Then you must delete the entry that is no longer valid.

IMPORTANT: An elective cannot be started if it has not been pre-approved and will not be credited if you do not comply with this procedure. If you complete an elective without having it pre-approved, it will potentially be considered a professionalism issue and will be brought to the attention of the Clerkship Director.

How to request approval for your electives

As soon as you receive confirmation of your elective from the Electives Office, you must also request approval through your Clinical Placement account (CP). Please follow these steps:

1. Plan your elective.
2. Go to the Student Tools application.
3. Enter your username and password (the same as the ones used to access your ONE45 account).
4. Open your file by choosing “Clinical Placement”.
5. Choose: “Request approval for an elective”.
6. Make sure to complete all sections of the form and then choose “Submit”.
7. Once we have approved your elective (in a delay of 48–72 hours), your Clinical Placement account will automatically be updated.

NOTE: When you request approval for an elective, please make sure to enter the name of your supervisor. If no supervisor has been assigned to you at the moment you receive a confirmation, you must enter the name of the coordinator who confirmed the elective or choose in the drop-down menu: Elective confirmed by Department Coordinator. You will be able to modify this entry at the end of your elective. Requests with TBD, TBA, Multiple preceptors, do not know, etc., will not be approved.

If the preceptor’s name does not appear in the drop-down menu, select “Preceptor does not appear in list” and write his or her name, surname, and email address in the comment box.

Diversification Policy for Year 4 Electives 

In April 2018 at CCME, the Association of Faculties of Medicine Canada’s (AFMC) Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) Committee (which is a Committee of the 17 Canadian UG Deans) reached a consensus, agreeing to the following proposal:

“Undergraduate programs recognize their dual responsibility to ensure students undertake a full educational experience that prepares them for any potential career choice, while also optimizing their ability to engage in the increasingly competitive postgraduate match process. Undertaking elective experiences exclusively in a single discipline is pedagogically unsound and fails to provide students with a full exposure to potential career options. Consequently, we commit that, beginning with the Class of 2021, student elective opportunities cannot exceed a maximum of eight weeks in any single entry-level discipline.” [VA1] 

“While the majority of medical students studying in Canada apply only to the Canadian residency match (through CaRMS), some students also apply (or apply exclusively) to the U.S. residency match (through ERAS). As this Canadian policy applies to all Canadian UGME programs, all students enrolled in these programs are subject to the same policies. The 8-week maximum applies irrespective of the student’s decision about residency applications.”

The AFMC PGME Committee (the 17 Canadian PG Deans) expressed unanimously in support of this proposal when it was discussed with them at CCME.

The AFMC UGME Committee undertook consultation with the CFMS as well as through each school’s curriculum committee and/or local student leadership. This feedback, including a written report submitted to the UG Deans by the CFMS was discussed at the October 26, 2018 UG Deans’ meeting at the AFMC.

Therefore, in accordance with the AFMC National Elective Diversification Policynorth_eastexternal link, all clinical electives have been categorized according to the CaRMS list of “Entry-level disciplines”.  An entry-level discipline is an Entry Route in the PGY-1 (R1) match.

What it means

• When registering your electives in your Clinical Placement account, you will need to tag your elective to the appropriate discipline.
• In 4th year, you must cover a minimum of 3 disciplines in the PGY1 Entry-level and PGY3-4 Subspecialty, by doing at least 2 weeks in each discipline.  A maximum of 8 weeks of clinical electives is allowed in the same discipline.

PGY1 Entry-level and PGY3-4 disciplines:

• D1 Anatomical Pathology
• D2 Anesthesiology
• D3 Cardiac Surgery
• D4 Dermatology
• D5 Diagnostic Radiology
• D6 Emergency Medicine
• D7 Family Medicine
• D8 General Pathology
• D9 General Surgery
• D10 Hematological Pathology
• D11 Internal Medicine (General)—CTU and CT
• D12 Medical Genetics and Genomics
• D13 Medical Microbiology
• D14 Neurology
• D15 Neurology—Pediatric
• D16 Neuropathology
• D17 Neurosurgery
• D18 Nuclear Medicine
• D19 Obstetrics and Gynecology
• D20 Ophthalmology
• D21 Orthopedic Surgery
• D22 Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery
• D23 Pediatrics (General)
• D24 Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
• D25 Plastic Surgery
• D26 Psychiatry
• D27 Public Health and Preventive Medicine
• D28 Radiation Oncology
• D29 Urology
• D30 Vascular Surgery
• D31 Non-Clinical (these electives do not count towards a discipline, but must be tagged)
• D32 PGY3-4 Pediatrics Subspecialties
• D33 PGY3-4 Internal Medicine Subspecialties

Non-clinical electives do not count towards a discipline.  However, for tracking purposes you will be asked to tag them as follows:  D31 Non-Clinical.

Special Circumstances

• In general, a discipline is determined by the main specialty of a preceptor. However, there might be exceptions. For example:
• If a student is following a Family Medicine physician doing only Emergency Medicine, it will count as the Emergency Medicine discipline.
• If a student is following a Family Medicine physician doing both Emergency Medicine and seeing patients at the clinic, then it will count as the Family Medicine discipline.
• Please note that mandatory Selective is not taken into account in the diversification policy.

If you have not done the mandatory 4 consecutive weeks of community placement during 3rd year you must do it in 4th year.

Please visit the DME website for more information or contact them at [email protected]

During year 4, students will also have 2 weeks of vacation for the winter break and 3 weeks reserved for residency interviews.

• Each placement (selective & elective) must be validated with an evaluation. Elective evaluations must be completed by a practicing physician, not a resident.
• At the end of the 4th year program (end of March), a student’s file will be considered as complete only if all evaluations have been received and are successfully passed.
• Each student must succeed all their placements to be eligible to the M.D. degree.
• You must always keep a copy of your evaluations for your personal records.

• If ever you fail a placement, remediation will be mandated after meeting with the clerkship director.

Elective Evaluations

A few days before the end of each elective, you must return to your clinical placement account to indicate that your elective has been completed. Then you must complete these 3 mandatory forms:

• Evaluation of preceptor by student;
• Evaluation of elective experience by student;
• Evaluation of student by preceptor – Please confirm details*

*The 3rd step consists of confirming the details of the elective before forwarding by email to the preceptor the Evaluation of student by preceptor.

IMPORTANT

• Elective evaluations must be completed by a practicing physician, not a resident.
• Each student must comply with the deadlines provided.
• Please note that your evaluations will validate successful completion of your electives.

Selective Evaluations

Evaluation of mandatory selectives will be done through one45. 

• The selective coordinators will send the evaluation forms in the student one45 To Do page. 
• The students will select their preceptor and send the evaluation.  Only one preceptor is responsible to complete the student evaluation even if he has worked with multiple ones.
• Students must evaluate each preceptor and resident they have worked with even if worked only for a half day.

You will have to complete the Medical Council of Canada practice test during your 4th year which will be held in December 2022. The test has two parts:

• multiple choice questions (MCQ)
• clinical decision-making questions (PDCQ).

Details will be sent to you later.

If you experience difficulties such as personal well-being or stress-related issues during an elective, please do not hesitate to contact the Electives Coordinator at [email protected] or by phone at 613-562-5800 ext. 8552 or toll free at 1-877-868-8292 ext. 8552.

The Office of Student Affairs also offers a confidential counselling and referral service to undergraduate medical students. Students who are experiencing difficulty with stress related to personal and academic demands are encouraged to consult with a professional counsellor in Student Affairs. See their website for more information on all their services.