my name is Caitlin Symonette and I'm a fifth year resident in the division of plastic
and reconstructive surgery at Western. I
think one of the strengths of our
program are the people. We have a great
resident group that's highly cohesive. We
have great mentorship between senior
level residents and junior level
residents and that really improves the
atmosphere and collegiality within the
program which also promotes good
learning. We are a moderate-sized plastic surgery
training program in Canada we have 10
staff and 3 sites that the residents
rotate through. We service clinically all
of southwestern Ontario and have a
catchment area that's somewhere between 1 and 2 people so residents that come to
train through our program get a very
strong clinical experience and I think
that's been a big strength of ours
through the years we have staff that are
very highly trained and there's
subspecialty areas and known
internationally. The residents get a lot
of flexibility in terms of being able to
guide their experience and get exposure
to cases perhaps the big
want to see more of. There's a huge
variety between pediatrics, microsurgery,
hand surgery, burn reconstruction, complex wound reconstruction, craniofacials, so we
really do get to see it all. In addition
to this, we get exposure to the community.
We have elective time in our fourth year
and then we also have a community
experience in our junior years that
allows you to choose if there's an area
that you want more more exposure to. I
think residents should choose the
program in plastic surgery in the
Schulich School of Medicine and
Dentistry because we really are a
comprehensive program. We have the unique
aspect of masters in surgery. We have
annual research requirements for the
residency and we also have a breadth of
clinical exposure that trains you not
only to be a good surgeon but also to be
a good manager in the health care
environment. When a resident finishes
their training program here at Schulich
and plastic surgery, our hope is that
they will have the foundations to
establish a very strong career in
plastic surgery regardless of what
direction they ultimately want to go in
 
