CAPE BRETON INTEGRATED FMEM

The heart of Gaelic culture in Canada, Cape Breton Island is a truly magical place—physically, culturally, and socially. Here, lively kitchen parties are balanced with world-class golf and hikes on breathtaking trails. Where the cliffs of the Highlands meet the sea, the Cabot Trail winds its way from stunning view to stunning view. Besides being the island’s only city, the area boasts cozy seaside towns and welcoming inland communities.

  • CNN named the Cabot Trail “One of 49 journey’s that’ll change your life”

  • Rich in Mi’kmaq, Acadian, and Celtic culture 

  • Hike, bike, sail, kayak, ski, and golf some of the worlds best golf courses 

  • Countless historic sites and nature parks  

135,000

POPULATION

A hidden gem with stunning landscapes and historical wonders.

Cape Breton - Sydney facilities

Located on beautiful Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, the Sydney program is comprised of four acute care facilities and five rural facilities within the major referral center, Cape Breton Regional Hospital (CBRH).

  • 162 acute care beds

  • 36 emergency beds

  • 23 intermediate and critical care beds

  • 40 maternal child beds

  • 52 mental health and addictions beds

  • 9 palliative care beds  

The Cape Breton Regional Hospital serves both as the community hospital for Sydney and surrounding area.

  • They are the second busiest healthcare facility in Nova Scotia

  • Over 47,000 emergency department visits/year. Again, only second to the QEII in Halifax,

  • They have the highest patient care mix (degree of patient complexity) in the province. Sixty-six per cent of emergency patients at the site have a CTAS score of 1-3.

  • They have a dedicated staff of more than 3,500 health care providers who work with 270 hospital and community-based physicians

  • They provide care to approximately 130,000 people.

Each resident develops a panel of patients that they will follow for three years

Residents will spend a total of 28 weeks over three years, practicing emergency medicine

Sixty-six per cent of emergency patients at the CBRH hospital have a CTAS score of 1-3

Salary and benefits

During your residency in Cape Breton, as with all our residency sites, your salary will be very competitive.

$69,867 – $80,646

PGY1 - PGY3 SALARY AMOUNTS

The curriculum

This innovative program is designed to prepare family physicians for comprehensive patient care while fulfilling valuable leadership roles. Family physicians in smaller communities, who frequently staff emergency rooms, are required to be highly trained and equipped to deal with situations that their colleagues in larger centres often don't encounter. To better integrate the training required of a physician practicing family and emergency medicine concurrently, this program combines the two aspects of practice in a more cohesive manner.

The program covers core competencies currently addressed with the two-year family medicine and the one-year emergency medicine programs. The two components are integrated, resulting in competencies being accumulated over the three years.

The resident will spend a large portion of their time in a rural setting where they will work with a comprehensive family physician who also works in the rural emergency department. Residents in this program share curriculum with the residents of the core family medicine program as well as having curriculum designed specifically for this program. Residents work in the emergency department on a regular basis during their core family medicine rotations and experience both comprehensive family medicine and emergency medicine integrated throughout all of their three years.


Discussion and feedback will occur between resident and preceptor at each stage using a field note format. Tools such as benchmarking exams, presentations skills assessment, and other methods will be part of program.

Residents attend both Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine Academic sessions including:

  • Practice based small group learning sessions

  • Family medicine and emergency medicine evidence based medicine rounds, as well as 2 PEARL newsletters per year.

  • Shared Simulation/case based learning modules

  • Core faculty presented seminars

  • In PGY2 & 3 will participate in delivering Continuous Quality Improvement and Morbidity and Mortality rounds.

  • Exam preparation (written and practical) for LMCC Part II and both the CFPC Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine certification exams

Simulation experiences

During PGY1 & 2, residents will participate in shared simulation and procedural skills curriculum with their FM cohort. This curriculum is designed to meet the CCFP simulation needs set out in the Residency Training Profile resulting in what would have been a tentative 3-year curriculum concentrated into 2-years. Residents will receive approximately 100-hours in simulation through a mixture of: high fidelity scenarios, procedural skills sessions, task trainers, augmented reality, PoCUS curriculum and flipped classroom workshops, to name a few. iFMEM residents will also participate in annual cadaver labs hosted by our Saint John campus.

In PGY3, senior residents will complete their own simulation and procedural skills curriculum designed to target High Acuity Low Opportunity scenarios, such as transvenous pacemaker insertion, awake intubation etc. PGY3s will also have the opportunity to participate in Simulation Facilitation, by getting involved as facilitators and content experts teaching our medical students and junior residents.

Clinical experiences

PGY1 ROTATIONS

  • Core family medicine

  • Emergency medicine

  • General medicine (hospitalist)

  • General surgery

  • Obstetrics/gynecology

  • Orthopedics

  • Pediatrics

  • Community family medicine

  • Critical care

PGY2 ROTATIONS

  • Critical care

  • Core family medicine

  • Geriatric medicine (geriatrics + MTU)

  • Palliative care

  • Community family medicine

  • Emergency medicine

  • Electives

  • Pediatric emergency medicine

PGY3 ROTATIONS

  • Emergency medicine

  • Core family medicine

  • Critical Care (ICU, anaesthesia, and CCU)

  • Community Family Medicine

  • Trauma

  • Electives

Sample schedule

To cross reference and compare the sites in our program, find more information by clicking below.

Dr. Mike MacDonald
Site Director, iFMEM Program

Dr. MacDonald is the champion of the iFMEM program in Cape Breton. Through significant stakeholder engagement and administrative perseverance, this dream became a reality in 2022.

As a Dalhousie graduate himself, Dr. MacDonald is wholly invested in his community:

“Cape Breton is such a beautiful place to call home. We’re a social, cultural and geographical paradise. However, we’re also a clinical one too! This slice of heaven is a learners’ dream, and because of that I was motivated to create the iFMEM program here. Our patients deserve a centre of excellence. Through iFMEM Cape Breton our physicians, institution and educators will be compelled to strive for lifelong education. Surrounding ourselves with the brightest minds, like you, and sharing our excitement for family and emergency medicine, is a contagious phenomenon that will hopefully permeate through our medical community. It is my hope that through iFMEM Cape Breton we can work toward the sustainability of our work force and focus on quality improvement initiatives as we strive to provide innovative & comprehensive healthcare to our deserving patients.”

As Site Director, Dr. MacDonald really emphasizes the self-directed aspect of his residents’ education. Through casual, or formal check-ins, he is involved with each resident one on one as the program is tailored to meet their immediate, or future needs. More systemically, this was reflected in 2024 when the program made large changes prompted by resident feedback. The organization of rotation experiences was rearranged to bolster some of our stronger learning experiences. Among this includes integration of critical care throughout all 3-years of clinical learning in iFMEM.

Outside of work, Dr. MacDonald can often be found taking in the best of Cape Breton through his adventures on the water or up in the Cape Breton Highlands with his wife, Dr. Keating, or their Newfoundland dogs.

Sound like a good fit?

If you want to learn more about a residency in the community of Sydney, get in touch. Our Sydney staff would be happy to answer all of your questions.

Site Director, FMEM Program 
Dr. Mike MacDonald
MacDonaldMJ@me.com
(902) 567-7741

Associate Resident Co-Leaders
Dr. Annie Dube
adube@dal.ca

Site Administrator
Jacquie Heading
jacquie.heading@nshealth.ca