Orthopedic Surgery: the Practice Eligibility Route

How training is structured

The Royal College sets out the training for Orthopedic Surgery in the blocks below. An internationally trained specialist is assessed on whether their own training and practice record is comparable in structure and content.

Required experiences

Specific experiences the Royal College names for this discipline.

• 1.1 Minimum of (6) six blocks but no more than (18) eighteen blocks as a junior resident in Orthopedic Surgery
• 1.2 The foundational surgery training must include a minimum of (1) one block in each of: 1.2.1 critical care; 1.2.2 a service that provides initial trauma management (such as Emergency Medicine, General Surgery, trauma team, Orthopedic Surgery, or Plastic Surgery); 1.2.3 General Surgery and/or Vascular Surgery; 1.2.4 Internal Medicine or its relevant subspecialties
• 2.1 The equivalent of at least six (6) blocks in Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery
• 2.2 The equivalent of at least three (3) blocks in each of the following rotations: 2.2.1 Trauma; 2.2.2 Sports Medicine; 2.2.3 Spine Surgery; 2.2.4 Oncologic Orthopedic Surgery; 2.2.5 the equivalent of at least three (3) blocks of adult reconstruction/arthroplasty in each of 2.2.5.1 upper limb, 2.2.5.2 foot and ankle, and 2.2.5.3 hip and knee
• 2.3 The equivalent of at least two (2) blocks of training in Community Orthopedic Surgery
• 2.4 At least six (6) blocks of this period must be spent as a senior resident in Orthopedic Surgery

Flexible or selective components

Where the requirements allow a choice.

• Not specified in this document (no explicit elective or selective blocks are listed; blocks beyond the stated minimums are at program discretion within the required periods)

Common questions

What is the Practice Eligibility Route in Orthopedic Surgery?

The Practice Eligibility Route (PER) is the Royal College process by which an internationally trained specialist can be assessed for eligibility to sit the certification examination in Orthopedic Surgery without repeating a Canadian residency. The Royal College reads your postgraduate training and practice record against the published Specialty Training Requirements for the discipline.

What training does the Royal College expect in Orthopedic Surgery?

The Specialty Training Requirements describe five years of approved residency training in Orthopedic Surgery. The full block-by-block structure is set out on this page, taken from the Royal College document for this discipline.

Does meeting the training requirements guarantee eligibility?

No. Eligibility is a committee decision made on your individual file, and other factors are considered. This page reproduces the published requirements so you can see how your own training compares before you apply; it is not an eligibility ruling.

Where do I start?

Read the six steps in the PER guide, then have your training mapped against the Specialty Training Requirements before you pay any fees. The free PDF for this specialty carries the steps, the document checklist, and the Orthopedic Surgery requirements in one file.

More on the route itself: the full PER guide covers the six steps and the document checklist. Royal College examination dates for every discipline are on the Deadline Radar, and Canadian clinical fellowships in Orthopedic Surgery are in the Fellowship Finder.