Program Highlights
 

Uniquely B.C:  UBC Family Medicine
Family Medicine training in BC presents you with many unique opportunities. We are a fully accredited distributed program with 23 training sites and multiple training communities. In an effort to meet the evolving needs of our society, each site provides a solid foundation in the knowledge and clinical skills of Family Medicine so that our graduates are prepared to practice in a variety of settings. While our program offers diversity of training, it is based on common goals, learning objectives, and assessment standards.

All residents are required to do a mandatory 2-month rural rotation in Family Medicine in their second year. Residents in the Coastal, or rural programs in the Okanagan or the North complete longer rural placements. Residents can also apply to participate in Enhanced Rural training for a total of 4-6 months in rural communities.

There is extensive academic and administrative support for the entire residency program. Our central program administrative team is based in Vancouver on UBC campus. At the site level, leadership teams are made up of a Site Director, Site Faculty, Lead Residents and administrators. Lead Program Faculty provide provincial education support in the areas of curriculum, assessment, faculty development, scholarship and behavioral medicine.

The Family Practice Postgraduate Education Committee has representation from all sites to ensure a connected, distributed program that fully meets accreditation standards. Residents are represented at all levels of governance.

A wide range of amazing recreational and cultural opportunities are at your doorstep, as well as a collegial community of residents and physicians with whom you can learn, grow, and play. We want your experience to be in BC to be a positive and enjoyable one.

Training Sites: Overview
Visit the UBC Family Medicine Postgraduate website for a detailed overview of each of the 23 sites and their surrounding communities.  Each site provides opportunities to experience Family Medicine in their unique context, offering special opportunities to gain experience and skills unique to the area where you are training.

The following is a list of our sites and their base community/hospital. Each site serves the surrounding community (see training sites for full details):

Greater Vancouver / Lower Mainland

• Abbotsford-Mission
• Coastal (North Vancouver, Lion’s Gate Hospital)
• Chilliwack
• Indigenous (Greater Vancouver and rural Indigenous communities)
• St. Paul’s (Downtown Vancouver, Inner City)
• Surrey South Fraser (Surrey Memorial Hospital)
• Vancouver Fraser (New Westminster, Royal Columbian) 

Interior Region

• Kootenay Boundary (Trail, Nelson, Rossland, Castlegar)
• Kelowna Rural (Kelowna R1 year; rural communities across BC in R2 year)
• Kelowna Regional
• North Okanagan (Vernon)
• Okanagan South (Penticton)
• Kamloops 

Vancouver Island

• Indigenous (Victoria, Ladysmith and rural Indigenous communities including Pacheedaht, Penelakut, ‘Namgis)
• Quw’utsun (Duncan)
• Nanaimo 
• Strathcona (Comox, Campbell River and Courtenay)
• Victoria

Northern

• Fort St. John (Northeast)
• Northern Rural (Prince George R1 year; rural communities across BC in R2 year)
• Prince George
• Rural Immersion (Hazelton, Smithers, Vanderhoof, Mackenzie, Valemount/McBride, Chetwynd/Tumbler Ridge)
• Terrace (Rural Northwest) 

IMG positions are offered at the following sites:

• Abbotsford-Mission
• Chilliwack
• Coastal
• Fort St. John
• Kamloops
• Kootenay Boundary
• Nanaimo
• North Okanagan
• Okanagan South
• Kelowna Rural
• Kelowna Regional
• Prince George
• Strathcona
• St. Paul’s
• Surrey South Fraser
• Vancouver Fraser
• Victoria

Resident Support

Resident resilience and wellness is our top priority. Important resources have been developed by our program to support our residents throughout the course of the training.

All UBC programs are allocated a fixed amount of funding per resident for Resident Activities.  This funding is used to provide educational support to residents during their 2 years of training. This includes funding for residents to attend program-wide courses and events. Additionally, residents may identify conferences and educational materials that would supplement their training experience. A discretionary, per resident funding will also be allocated to the sites for a similar purpose at the site level.

Program Curriculum
This residency program is for 2 years.

Program length of training does not exceed the Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada standard.

Introduction

This site provides opportunities to develop special expertise in providing safe and appropriate care with and for Indigenous peoples for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous allied physicians. Please note that this site is administered centrally as part of the Indigenous Family Medicine program together with Indigenous – Lower Mainland, Indigenous Victoria, and Indigenous – Rural Vancouver Island. Information regarding these other specific sites can be found under a separate CaRMS description.

Our program is relationship-based and engaged with Indigenous communities. We work in collaboration with a number of Indigenous communities and their health care teams to provide educational experiences whereby residents are connected within an Indigenous community for the duration of their training.  The residents are welcomed and encouraged to participate in community activities and gatherings in order to help them develop trust with the community they are serving. Our program focuses on supporting residents to engage with communities in a respectful way in order to learn about health and healing with and from Indigenous peoples.

At the Indigenous – Victoria site, our residents have their home clinics based at a combination of the Camas LeLum Clinic, Victoria Native Friendship Center clinic, Cool-Aid, and Westshore. There is also a possibility of some clinic outreach to Pacheedaht/ Beecher Bay/ Tsartlip.

Indigenous Community Visits, Academic Curriculum, and Research

New in 2025/26, our Indigenous Family Practice program will be administering our own academic curriculum. Previously, our curriculum has been administered by partnered sites such as Victoria.

Our curriculum is structured into academic weeks, and clinically focused sessions will include lectures, case-based learning, SIM sessions, hands-on clinical/procedural skills workshops, and exam prep. A highlight of our site is our focus on relationship to each other and the Indigenous communities we serve, and a focus of our academic gatherings is on incorporating Indigenous ceremony and knowledge, community visits and activities, and meetings with Elders and knowledge keepers. We will also have a focus on resident wellness built into our curriculum.

We will have 6 academic weeks scheduled throughout the year. Some weeks will be in-person and some will be virtual. Please note that since we are a distributed program, attendance will require travel which will be reimbursed. Expect to travel a minimum of three times per year for academic/scholarship related travel.

Research requirements are consistent with other sites at UBC. In R1 a small research or quality improvement project is to be completed, either individually or with another resident. In R2, a larger scholar project must be completed, and will be presented at our Indigenous Scholarship presentation at the end of residency.

International Electives

Residents can do one month of interprovincial or international electives during their training.

Further Training

Third year training positions are available in the area of Emergency Medicine, Care of The Elderly, Anesthesia, Palliative Medicine, Sports and Exercise Medicine, Clinician Scholars program and a wide range of other category 2 Enhanced Skills programs.

 

Training Sites
 

Victoria / Pacheedaht/ Beecher Bay/ Tsartlip – Victoria site, traditional Lekwungen and WASANEC territory, is the largest city on Vancouver Island and the capital of BC. The site utilizes full service community family practices, inner city clinics and the 950 acute care beds of the Island Health Authority at Royal Jubilee and Victoria General Hospitals. There 3,000+ deliveries, over 100,000 emergency room visits, and 36,000 surgical procedures carried out each year. Residents based in Victoria collaborate with the Victoria Family Practice site for academic days and in-hospital rotations so will have a large cohort of peers (44 residents). Our FP preceptors are based with:

Cool-Aid, an Inner City clinic with outreach to Pacheedaht and Beecher Bay Indigenous and Victoria Native Friendship Centre
Westshore Community Health Centre – designed to bring low-barrier, trauma-informed coordinated care to the underserved populations and their families.
a full service FP clinic with maternity care and outreach to Tsartlip. We also have a full scope GP that residents will spend time with to round out training and for maternity care training.
 

Alert Bay / ’Namgis First Nation – This friendly community is well known for its magnificent scenery. Located on Cormorant Island, off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, it is approximately 180 miles by water from Vancouver. Alert Bay has been the traditional home of the ‘Namgis’ First Nations people and was once a native burial ground. Alert Bay has a population of approximately 550 residents.

Royal Jubilee Hospital – a tertiary referral hospital

 

Additional Information
 

Please see our site-specific selection criteria:

Criteria for scoring Personal Letter for Indigenous site suitability

0 point:

– no mention of interest in Indigenous health

– description of previous Indigenous health experiences lack cultural safety

1 point:

– establishes sincere interest in Indigenous health

– minimal specific experience working with Indigenous peoples or communities or only those required in their prior programs (ie. One

rotation/elective, mandatory community visits or required courses on cultural safety)

– Has experience in social justice and advocacy efforts in other areas other than Indigenous Health (ie. Serving refugee communities)

2 points:

– states working in Indigenous health as a major or primary career goal

– Previous experiences/electives working with Indigenous communities which are named (i.e. “I worked for two years with Fort Nelson First Nation,

as opposed to I did a Northern elective in an Indigenous community)

– References respectful and reciprocal relationships with Indigenous peoples and communities

– Demonstrates clear understanding of the historical and contextual factors which have led to health disparities in Indigenous communities and a

sincere desire to work towards addressing these

– Demonstrates sincere commitment to the principles of cultural safety and anti-Indigenous racism

Criteria for determining Lived Indigenous Experience

0 point:

– does not self-identify as an Indigenous person or uses language that is culturally unsafe to describe their lived Indigenous experiences (i.e. perpetuating stereotypes or prejudices)

1 point:

– self-identifies as Indigenous

2 points:

– Self-identifies as Indigenous AND

– Individual has a strong connection to their community (where they traditional are from or a chosen Indigenous community (ie. Urban Indigenous

communities)

– OR They have demonstrated a sincere interest in learning about their heritage, culture, and/or connection with their Indigenous

family/community.

– OR Has demonstrated a clear desire to be a leader/advocate in Indigenous Health through work/school/volunteer activities

*These criteria may not encapsulate everyone’s lived experience and we apologize if you do not see yourself in these descriptions. If you would like to connect with site leadership and/or residents in the program to discuss your unique story / lived experience please do not hesitate to reach out.

Criteria to determine sincere interest to train at Indigenous site

0 point:

– no specific contact with site

1 point:

– single e-mail or phone call indicating interest sent to site coordinator, site director or resident

– attendance at a UBC Indigenous Family Practice site Q&A sessions

– has a strong reference letter from one of our preceptors, alumni, and/or an Indigenous physician

2 points:

– has visited or worked with one of our primary training sites

– longitudinal demonstration of interest through multiple connections (ie. emails, phone calls, in-person meetings, info sessions, etc) with the site coordinator,

site directors, residents, site Elder, and/or preceptors

– worked with the site on projects or attended site events (ie. Indigenous Academic Days or the BC IMEG)

Criteria to Determine Relationships with Indigenous Peoples and/or Communities

0 point:

– No indication of having spent time in an Indigenous community* or working within an Indigenous context

– No strong personal or professional relationships with Indigenous people or communities*

1-2 points:

– Spent some time in an Indigenous community* in personal or professional capacities.

– Have 1-2 examples of working with Indigenous peoples or on projects that demonstrate a sincere interest in working in Indigenous Health.

– Attends IPAC and/or IMEG events

3-4 points:

– Lived in or grew up in an Indigenous community*

– Have many (3 or more) examples of working with Indigenous peoples or on projects that demonstrate a sincere interest in working in Indigenous Health (including cultural safety and anti-Indigenous racism work).

– Active participant or leader in IPAC, UBC IMEG committee, NCIME, or in other Indigenous medical leadership type roles.

*Due to colonialism there are many ways our connection to community and kinship ties have been disrupted. We also recognize that there are different ways we form community because of this. If this is your experience we encourage you to outline this in our site-specific personal letter or reach out by email/phone (if this is something you’re comfortable doing). Our intention is not to further isolate and segregate our community.