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Residency Program


The Plastic Surgery Residency program at UWO is a 5 year comprehensive training program accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Current Program Director is Dr. Robert Richards. The training Program accepts two new Residents per year.

The two core surgery years and three years of specialty training are centred at the teaching hospitals of the University of Western Ontario (London Health Sciences Centre comprised of University Hospital, Victoria Hospital and the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario) and St. Joseph's Health Centre.
A community plastic surgery rotation is available in either Windsor or Stratford, Ontario and as well, other elective blocks are available outside of London during the second year.

Quick Facts:
- There are opportunities for interprovincial and international electives while training in our program.
- There is a mandatory community plastic surgery rotation.
- The ratio of residents to faculty is 1:1.
- We provide residents with access to electronic medical resources.
- See program description for research requirements.

The PGY-1 year consists of:
plastic surgery 2 months
general surgery 2 months
orthopedic surgery 2 months
internal medicine 2 months
emergency medicine 2 months
community plastic surgery 2 months

The PGY-2 year consists of:
The second core surgery year has some flexibility. The majority of residents rotate through;
ICU 2 months
oral surgery 1 month
ENT 2 months
Other popular rotations include 1-3 months of research, and various elective rotations in or outside of London.

The PGY-3 to 5 years consist of:
The third, fourth, and fifth years are dedicated to plastic surgery rotations. Teaching and surgical case exposure is on an incremental basis over the five years, leading to chief resident positions in each of 3 hospitals for four month rotations in the final year. Various plastic surgery sub-specialty units exist at the three teaching hospitals including cranio-facial surgery, burn surgery, micro and hand surgery and aesthetic surgery.

Research opportunities:
Each resident is required to complete a research project annually which is presented at Annual Resident's Research Day which occurs in May of each year. Fully staffed BioEngineering, Clinical Outcomes, and Cell Biology Laboratories are part of the Hand & Upper Limb Centre at St. Joseph's Health Centre, which is an inter-disciplinary facility comprised of plastic and orthopaedic surgeons.

Seminars:
The academic teaching program includes weekly morning seminars (with protected time for residents), weekly inter-hospital grand rounds, and a monthly journal club. Twice weekly rounds are held at the Hand & Upper Limb Centre on subjects related to hand surgery. A Microsurgery Training Lab is organized for residents each year at the Instructional Lab of the Hand and Upper Limb Centre.

Selection Criteria:
It is recommended that candidates should have a proven interest in our specialty as demonstrated by electives in plastic surgery.

References should be obtained from at least two academic specialists in plastic surgery. The University of Western Ontario Division of Plastic Surgery considers applications from all Canadian medical schools equally. Residency training spots are allocated through the CaRMS Matching Service.

Additional Comments:
Residents write the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons' In-Training Examination each March. On call responsibilities comply with the collective agreement of the Professional Association of Interns and Residents of Ontario (PAIRO) and fall within the limits of 1 in 3 (out-of-house call), or 1 in 4 (in-house call). The structure of the Program is such that graduates of our training program are ready to pursue either an academic career or a community plastic surgery career (with or without further fellowship training). For more information regarding responsibilities and privileges of the UWO post-graduate training programs, review the UWO housestaff handbook and the website of the UWO Post-graduate Education Office (both will open in new window).