— Site General Information —

Location

Prince George is a city of 80,000 serving the majority of Northern BC. The referral area is approximately 250,000. It is located in the geographic centre of British Columbia, approximately 800 km from Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Kelowna. The population is young and the economic base is in forestry and servicing the northern region. Lakes and rivers abound with excellent summer opportunities to kayak, canoe, fish or just swim. There is an extensive network of trails within the city for running and mountain biking. Winter activities include a range from cross country skiing (classic or skate), hockey and speed skating. The surrounding area affords easy access to the mountains for camping, backpacking and downhill or backcountry skiing. Prince George is home to the Cougars (a Junior A hockey team), a symphony orchestra and an excellent semi-professional theater. We are fortunate to have the beautiful University of Northern BC campus located in Prince George. The UNBC Medical School opened its doors in 2004 and graduated its first class in 2008. Current alumni include many of the local family and specialist Physicians including the program’s site director! Prince George is an area where housing is affordable, the commute is short, and there are endless recreational opportunities at your doorstep. It provides a great opportunity for optimal work-life balance. For those with connections to the city, there are multiple daily flights to Vancouver on WestJet, Air Canada, and others. The primary focus of our program is the training of family physicians for work in communities outside major metropolitan areas with an emphasis on preparing the resident for primary care and management of acutely ill or injured patients, especially when access to a specialist’s care may be limited. Our setting affords the resident the opportunity to learn procedural skills and assume responsibility for a variety of clinical problems. Small town practice frequently requires a family physician to take charge of evolving acute clinical problems. Much of this happens after hours. The importance of on-call time is recognized and supported. Call is busy, occurs approximately 1:4. Friday is a common night off, when we encourage residents to gather socially. Prospective applicants are invited to visit our website at Department of Family Practice for more information and to be in touch with current residents. Undergraduate students wishing to do a clerkship elective with us are invited to apply for a limited number of positions through the Undergraduate Dean’s website: Clerkship Electives Program.  

Resources

The University Hospital of Northern BC is a tertiary care hospital and is the major referral center for Northern BC. A Cancer Clinic which offers medical and radiation treatment opened in 2012. A new Learning Center was opened in spring of 2015 which expanded our teaching and meeting facilities significantly and provided a new and improved location for our SIM lab. The 201 acute beds include 10 ICU/CCU beds, 8 NICU beds and a dedicated clinical teaching unit for Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. The Emergency department treats 46,000 patients annually making it one of the busiest emergency departments in the province. The department is the only dedicated trauma center for the North with 2 dedicated trauma bays, 16 acute care beds and a minor treatment unit. Family Physicians remain highly involved with both inpatient and emergency care. 9 general surgeons and 7 orthopaedic specialists perform 2500 surgical procedures annually. There is a busy ambulatory outpatient department with an endoscopy suite and rooms for outpatient minor surgery. A majority of the 1040 deliveries annually are managed by Family Physicians and midwives. This active unit is capable of managing high risk or complicated deliveries with obstetricians and paediatricians providing consultant care. Family Practice teaching has been centered in a purpose built, free standing clinic within a two minute walk to the hospital. The clinic houses the majority of our Family Physician preceptors, serving 16,000 patients. In 2014, we expanded to include community offices with additional preceptors. All practices use the same electronic medical record and are connected to the hospital systems allowing for access to all laboratory and radiology results. All practices embrace leading edge practice solutions such as group visits, multidisciplinary care from a primary care home and integrated health strategies, ever encouraged by the Prince George Division of Family Practice. Our Purpose is to foster diversity and clinical excellence to produce competent, professional, full service family physicians. Our Aspiration is to be a connected, vibrant community of adaptable family physicians and trainees, committed to an excellent learning environment, high quality primary care and community health and well-being.  

UBC Family Medicine

Family Medicine training in BC presents you with many unique opportunities. We are a fully accredited distributed program with 20 training sites. 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, Chief 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 20 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
• Okanagan South (Penticton)
• Kamloops
• North Okanagan (Vernon)

Vancouver Island

• Indigenous (Victoria, Duncan, Ladysmith and rural Indigenous communities)
• Nanaimo
• Strathcona (Comox, Campbell River and Courtenay)
• Victoria
• Quw’utsun (Cowichan)

Northern

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

IMG positions are offered at the following sites:

• Abbotsford-Mission
• Chilliwack
• Coastal
• Fort St. John
• Kamloops
• Kootenay Boundary
• Nanaimo
• 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.