Friday, March 23, 2012

2012 CaRMS Second Round Interviews

Interviews are now underway.  Second round applicants who were selected for interviews should have been notified by now.  I look forward to getting to know you in person or through my fellow interviewers over these next few days.  I must take the time here to formally thank all of my fellow preceptors and administrative staff in Oshawa and Kingston who have assisted our site through this second round process.
For unsuccesful applicants, I offer my condolences.  There are so many very strong candidates, it's unfortunate there are not more spots available to offer.  The applications are reviewed in multiple steps by many Queen's Family Medicine faculty; it is definitely not a "one man" process.  However, from the files that I directly handled, it was often little things - not enough reference letters, small unexplained gaps during training or since completing training - that tripped up an application relative to the others. 

Monday, March 19, 2012

2012 CaRMS second round update

This is just a quick update as it's been tremendously busy.  It's heartening to see that there is still strong interest in our site and appreciation for the type of training we are going to be offering to our residents.

The CaRMS files for our second round applicants are currently being reviewed in Oshawa and Kingston and candidates chosen for interviews should be contacted this week.

Let me end with a quick reminder to myself to address Jann Arden's "middle of nowhere" comment regarding Oshawa when I find some time this week...

Thursday, March 8, 2012

"Expect the unexpected."

I had no idea how true that was when somebody tried to brief me about the CaRMS process.  We were expecting to match with our highly ranked and strong learners who have that "pioneer spirit" as we head into our first year as a site.  And we did.  Let me welcome our initial group who have matched here - we truly are ecstatic with our group so far!  Unfortunately, there's just not quite as many signed on as we had hoped - we have three unmatched QBOL spots at this time.

I could insert some cliches about spilled milk, the sun tomorrow, silver linings, and the like but I'll just say things are what they are and we'll make the best of it.  I do believe that things happen for a reason so we will make the best of the opportunities that present in the second round of CaRMS as we try to complete our first group of residents.

If you are an applicant who is heading into the second iteration of CaRMS for Family Medicine, please refer to the CaRMS website for the instructions and timeline for the second iteration.  I hope you make the most of your opportunity as well and good luck.