Queen’s Accreditation– April 26 – May 1, 2026
Postgraduate Medical Education at Queen’s University will soon be undergoing its regular accreditation review and Resident Doctors of Canada (RDoC) is here to support residents through the process.
Resident engagement in the accreditation process is critically important for improving medical education. The feedback provided by residents will help programs continue to promote areas of strength and simultaneously, focus on areas that need improvement. Maintaining standards means maintaining excellent programs and producing physicians who are ready for practice.
The accreditation review will provide a firsthand evaluation of the institution and all programs. This process will determine the extent to which each program and institution meets the Canadian Residency Accreditation Consortium (CanRAC) Standards of Accreditation that allow for the objective assessment, accreditation, and continuous quality improvement of institutions and programs.
For more information about what accreditation is and what its objectives are, visit RDoC’s accreditation page.
RDoC’s role is to prepare residents for the accreditation review. RDoC prepares residents by providing information in the form of web resources and the pre-accreditation workshop, and obtaining insight into the programs and institution through the RDoC Pre-Accreditation Questionnaire (RPQ). RDoC also appoints resident surveyors who are full members of the survey teams during the review and helps ensure that resident voices are heard.Residents need to be present for the interviews that take place during the on-site review. The pre-accreditation workshop described below prepares residents for what to expect and how to best participate.
Pre-Accreditation Workshops
In preparation for the review, RDoC invites all residents to attend one of the two for-resident, by-resident pre-accreditation workshops offered in collaboration with the Professional Association of Residents of Ontario (PARO) and CanRAC. Residents will receive an invitation from PGME and will have protected time to attend one of two workshops on:
- Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, from 1400-1600 ET; or
- Tuesday, March 17, 2026, from 1300-1500 ET
RDoC Pre-Accreditation Questionnaire (RPQ)
The RPQ is specifically designed to obtain residents’ perspective on their training. It was developed by residents, for residents. RDoC asks questions that gather quantitative and qualitative information on the overall residency experience. It is an opportunity to provide a unique perspective on training in a confidential manner. RDoC asks that every Queen’s University resident in a Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) program complete the RPQ. The questionnaire will be sent via email by PARO. It is also critically important to participate in the interview during the on-site review to provide perspective directly to the survey teams.
How is the information from the RDoC Pre-Accreditation Questionnaire used?
Resident RPQ responses help prepare resident surveyors for the on-site review by providing important information about each program’s strengths and areas for improvement. This helps determine which programs resident surveyors visit and what types of questions they might ask.
RDoC will collate the results and prepare an RPQ Report based on the feedback received. The information residents provide will not be shared with program administration, program directors, faculty, institution, or the Residency Program Committee. Only the resident surveyors on the Royal College and CFPC Survey Teams will receive these reports to prepare them for the on-site visit.
RDoC will also prepare high-level RPQ Synthesis Reports. These reports contain very general collated information, synthesized from the results of the questionnaire. The RPQ Synthesis Reports will be shared with the Royal College and CFPC Accreditation Survey Teams. All information provided will remain confidential, and no individual non-anonymized responses will be shared in any component of the shared materials.
How can residents best prepare for the on-site accreditation review?
- Attend a RDoC Pre-Accreditation Workshop during which residents learn more about the accreditation process and specifically their role in it.
- Complete the RDoC Pre-Accreditation Questionnaire to help prepare the resident surveyors for the actual on-site review. The deadline to complete the RPQ is March 23, 2026.
- Meet as a group with their program’s co-residents early to discuss what they feel are the strengths and areas of improvement for their program, and what they would like to share with the resident surveyors during the interview.
- Identify concerns about a training program before the on-site accreditation visit (for example, at the Residency Program Committee, University-led Internal Review).
- Be prepared to answer key questions from the survey team. Providing feedback will help their program continue to promote, (work on), the areas of strength while also focusing on areas that need improvement.
If you wish to read more information about accreditation from a resident’s perspective, please visit RDoC’s accreditation webpage.
Become a resident surveyor for other accreditation reviews by filling out our expression of interest form.