Eligibility and Application

1. All practice-eligible applicants must hold Certification in the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CCFP) and remain a member in good standing with the CFPC.
2. The applicant must be engaged in emergency practice in Canada as the most responsible physician caring for the patient, at a rate of 400 hours per year for the four-year period immediately prior to the date of application.
   [1]Time spent in emergency practice during training, as a family medicine resident, cannot be included in the number of hours required to qualify for the practice-eligible route.

For purposes of exam eligibility, emergency practice is defined as responsibility in a busy clinical setting attending to acutely ill patients requiring emergent or urgent care. The applicant must have experience with and provide evidence of:
Providing care to a broad exposure of all manner of emergencies from the community, including those impacting children and adults

• Receiving prehospital ambulances from the community
• Working in a clinical setting that has an affiliation or admitting relationship with an in-patient facility
• Treating patients with conditions requiring sedation, central venous lines, casting and endotracheal intubation

3. Applicants must have competencies in procedural skills related to emergency medicine, including cardiac and trauma life support, and have this documented by the director of their hospital emergency department or their medical staff superior.

The Board of Examinations and Certification (BEC) may provide exceptions to individual applicants who merit special consideration to sit an examination related to life circumstances impacting their ability to obtain 400 hours per year for four years immediately prior to the date of application. For example, an individual who takes a year-long parental leave from practice may have 400 hours per year in four of the last five years which could be considered acceptable. Those wishing to apply for special consideration should do so through ccfpexam@cfpc.ca. Applications must include a detailed explanation, evidence supporting why special consideration is warranted, and how the individual applicant has obtained and maintained the necessary skills to care for emergent and urgent acutely ill patients. All decisions regarding requests for special consideration will be made by the BEC and are final.

Credit for Training in Emergency Medicine towards practice history –

[1] Time spent providing emergency care during family medicine residency training (i.e., prior to their certification in family medicine (CCFP) being awarded) is not eligible to be considered in the 400 hours per year for four years.   

[2] Individuals who have successfully completed enhanced skills training in Canada (i.e., after their CCFP being awarded) in programs other than a certificate of added competence in emergency medicine program which includes Emergency Medicine rotations, may request consideration from the CFPC to use actual time spent in the Emergency Department during the program as time in practice, hour for hour in their first of the four years (400 hours per year) in practice. Examples of such programs (in 2024) include, but are not limited to:

• The University of Toronto’s Supplementary Emergency Medicine Experience (SEME);
• Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia’s Emergency Education Programs (e.g., Nanaimo Emergency Education Program (NEEP)); and
• Rural/Regional Self-designed program.

If you would like this type of training time to be considered, please send a detailed email to ccfpexam@cfpc.ca with specifics about your completed program including accurate start and ends dates of completed rotations with number of hours actually spent working in the Emergency Medicine Department.  The request will be reviewed and adjudicated.  Further information may be requested.  Decisions of the College in this matter will be final.

Note: Applicants who obtain family medicine certification (CCFP) through the recognized training and certification outside Canada route, must practise the most recent two years of emergency medicine in Canada. They may have obtained the remainder of their four-year practice requirement in the jurisdiction in which they have recognized certification, (i.e., the provision of emergency care can only occur Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, or the United States to be eligible as part of this requirement).

After gaining approval to sit the examination, a candidate maintains practice eligibility for three years or three attempts (whichever comes first). If eligibility expires, a candidate can reapply to sit the examination and will be expected to meet the practice-eligible criteria in place at the time of application. Once ruled eligible, candidates for the Examination of Added Competence in Emergency Medicine must maintain a full, unrestricted licence to practise family/emergency medicine and they must remain engaged in emergency practice consistent with their category of eligibility in order to remain eligible for the exam.