Kingston Campus MD Program

The School of Medicine offers a 4-year program Doctor of Medicine degree. This program must meet all the requirements for accreditation and prepares graduates for post-graduate training leading to licensure and certification. The program provides opportunities for close, personal interactions between students and faculty members. It allows students to obtain relevant, extensive, hands-on clinical experience under supervision, especially:

• in ambulatory settings embedded in the curriculum and
• increased collaboration in education among the clinical disciplines.

The program also offers students many opportunities for clinical placements with our regional partners to experience health care delivery in a variety of community settings. There is great potential for students to benefit from the integration of both clinical and basic sciences.

The 4-year MD program at Queen’s University is structured in sequential terms that will allow students to progress from scientific foundational knowledge through to clinical foundations of the human systems and, finally, in clinical engagement during a 2-year clinical rotation series, including electives for students to explore areas of interest.

The pre-clerkship experience comprises the first 2 years at Queen’s and is designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed for clinical experiences in clerkship and residency through an in-person curriculum. The curriculum is designed to combine teaching on foundational basic science knowledge and principles of physician roles, along with clinical teaching, both in the classroom and in clinical skills.

In addition to attending large-group, classroom-based sessions, students will work closely with tutors in small groups and will learn in a variety of settings, including:

• laboratories,
• clinical skills centres,
• the simulation laboratory and
• in hospital and community settings.

At the end of the first year, students participate in Community Week at regional sites in Ontario, where they work with family physicians and other health professionals.

The clerkship experience at Queen’s provides students with a wide breadth of clinical experiences to prepare them for future practice. Encompassing the final 2 years of medical school training, it is a blend of clinical rotations in core disciplines, classroom-based consolidation experiences and elective opportunities. Students can engage in either block-based clinical rotations in core disciplines, longitudinal generalist community block in regional sites, classroom-based consolidation experiences, and elective opportunities.

The MD program is based on Kingston campus. The clerkship portion of the MD program component is delivered in a regional format and students are expected to spend anywhere from one-third to three-quarters of their time outside of Kingston at regional sites across Ontario.