Contact

Dr. James Card

Program Director

Roghieh Soufinia

Site Coordinator
Application Details

Canadian Medical Graduates

5 Available Spots

Events Calendar

Upcoming Events
05
Nov
18:00  
PST  
— Resident Q&A
UBC Family Practice Postgrad - Rural Fort St John Site Q&A
07
Nov
08:00  
PST  
— Resident Q&A
UBC Family Practice Postgrad - Vancouver Fraser Site Q&A
08
Nov
09:30  
PST  
— Resident Q&A
UBC Family Practice Postgrad - Strathcona Site Q&A
08
Nov
16:30  
PST  
— Meet & Greet
Sunset Social - Discover UBC
13
Nov
08:00  
PST  
— Resident Q&A
UBC Family Practice Postgrad - Nanaimo Site Q&A
13
Nov
12:00  
PST  
— Resident Q&A
UBC Family Practice Postgrad - Kelowna Regional and Rural Site Q&A
13
Nov
17:30  
PST  
— Resident Q&A
UBC Family Practice Postgrad - Okanagan South Site Q&A
13
Nov
18:00  
PST  
— Resident Q&A
UBC Family Practice Postgrad - Abbotsford/Mission Site Q&A
Upcoming Events From
University of British Columbia
06
Nov
16:30  
PST  
— Information Session
UBC OBGYN CaRMS Info Session
06
Nov
17:00  
PST  
— Information Session
UBC Victoria Internal Medicine Program Info Session
08
Nov
16:00  
PST  
— Information Session
University of British Columbia Radiation Oncology Virtual Information Session
13
Nov
18:00  
PST  
— Information Session, Program Director or Assistant Program Director, Program Information, Program Q&A, Resident Q&A
UBC Emergency Medicine Victoria Info session
15
Nov
17:30  
PST  
— Resident Q&A, Resident Panel
UBC General Surgery Resident Information Session
15
Nov
15:30  
PST  
— Information Session
UBC Urology Online CaRMS info session
18
Nov
17:00  
PST  
— Information Session
UBC Anesthesiology CaRMS Info Session
21
Nov
17:00  
PST  
— Information Session
UBC Anesthesiology CaRMS Info Session

Program Highlights

PLEASE REFER TO PROGRAM DESCRIPTION ON THE CARMS WEBSITE FOR THE MOST UP TO DATE INFORMATION  

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.

Visit the UBC Family Medicine Postgraduate website – NORTHERN RURAL (PRINCE GEORGE) for a detailed overview of our program.

Introduction

Hi, welcome to the Prince George site. I am James Card, the site director for both the Prince George and Northern Rural Family Practice Programs. I am a Northern Medical Program graduate and a graduate of the Prince George Family Practice Residency Program. I am currently a rural physician with my clinical practice in Valemount. I am passionate about full-service family practice and Rural and Remote medicine and I love the North! It is my goal to create a program that excels in transitioning residents into competent and confident physicians for Northern and Rural British Columbia.

Our site is for you if:

  • You are interested in full-service (urban or rural) Family Practice which includes office, hospital care, ER, and/or obstetrics.
  • You are interested in rural medicine
  • You are interested in rural locums
  • You are intrigued about potentially practicing in Northern Canada
  • You want to develop a solid foundation of acute care and ER Family Practice skills to apply for an R3 ER or GPA program (we have 12 weeks of ER and 4 weeks of ICU and 12 weeks of R2 elective time)
  • You want a rigorous, diverse, and relevant clinical experience with lots of rural influence.

Our site is probably not for you if:

  • You want to work in an urban-based Family Practice office only setting
  • You want to sub-specialize into a narrow scope of urban Family Practice
  • You enjoy traffic and unaffordable housing

So what has changed?

Lots!

  • We now have optional rural experiences during some of our core R1 rotations. This will take advantage of smaller communities with more one-on-one time with specialists and Family Physicians in an enthusiastic atmosphere. This will be balanced with the volume and experience of the preceptors in Prince George, one of UBC’s most established residency sites.
  • We have revamped some existing rotations such as Internal Medicine to ensure meaningful and relevant learning for your future Family Practice in a supportive learning environment.
  • We are continuously enhancing our available rural experiences during both years of residency.
  • We are currently offering mentorship in rural committee work and policy development for those interested in involvement with provincial rural networks.
  • We are maximizing SIM lab sessions (as best we can with COVID-19!) throughout the residency and frequent ultrasound teaching during both our Internal Medicine block and academic time.

If you want more information on any of these changes, please contact me by email as I would be happy to discuss! James.Card@unbc.ca

More importantly, contact our residents. Our residents are always happy to talk about the program and they are best informed to speak to our site philosophy and our strengths and weaknesses. Their emails are: pg.fm.chiefs@gmail.com (R2) pg.fm.reps@gmail.com (R1)

 

Academic Days and Research

Residents attend mandatory academic activities — usually a half day per week. This includes academic teaching which is a mix of clinical case discussions and core topics. Residents are also expected to do presentations. SIM sessions are frequently part of the weekly academic time.

In June of each year, residents will come together for a mandatory Site Specific Scholarship Day.

In the first year, residents will be expected to complete a quality improvement project. Throughout the two years, residents must complete a scholar project and present their work at our local Scholarship Day.

 

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.

Read more

General Information

— Site General Information —
Location

The first year of the Northern Rural Program is spent in Prince George, 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, 800 km from Vancouver, Edmonton, Kelowna and Calgary. 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, 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.

In the second year, residents locate in 2 different rural communities where they experience extended block time in accredited, high quality rural training sites.

Please see R2 Rural Rotation schedule, for a complete list of R2 Rural Rotation communities.

 

Resources

First year residents join their Prince George colleagues for the Prince George based curriculum. 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.

The 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 electronic medical records and are connected to the hospital systems allowing for access to all laboratory and radiology results. All practices continue to 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 Mission Statement says it all: We are a group of supportive colleagues working as skilled teachers and mentors, who model the diverse roles of FP’s within a high quality Primary Care Home. We foster clinical excellence and shared leadership to produce competent, professional, Full Service Family Doctors.

 

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

Vancouver Island

  • Indigenous (Victoria, Duncan, Ladysmith and rural Indigenous communities)
  • 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
  • Terrace (Rural Northwest)

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.

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Salary Information

Post graduate salaries and benefits differ by province and are determined by two things: your training year, and the province you work in. See below the salaries and benefits for University of British Columbia - Family Medicine - Prince George.
British Columbia
Gross Annual PGY-1 Salary
$65,332.37
Gross Annual PGY-2 Salary
$72,818.39
Gross Annual PGY-3 Salary
$79,301.62
Gross Annual PGY-4 Salary
$85,318.65
Gross Annual PGY-5 Salary
$91,710.67
Gross Annual PGY-6 Salary
$97,877.39
Gross Annual PGY-7 Salary
$104,271.09
Educational Leave
Yes
Annual Vacation
4 weeks
Meal Allowance
No
Frequency of Calls
1 in 4 onsite/1 in 3 offsite
Maternity Leave
17 weeks, plus up to 78 weeks Parental Leave
Provincial Health Insurance
100% Premiums Paid
Provincial Dues (% of salary)
1.50%
Extended Health Insurance
100% Premiums Paid
CMPA Dues Paid
Yes, mandatory
Dental Plan
100% Premiums Paid
Statutory Holidays
2x pay plus extra day with pay
Long-Term Disability Insurance
Yes 100% Premiums Paid
Sick Leave
Yes
Life Insurance
100% Premiums Paid
Updated July 25, 2023

Terms of Agreement April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2022
Resident Doctors of BC website

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Explore Location

Old red bridge over a river
Rural Prince George
Prince George is a city in British Columbia, Canada, on the Fraser and Nechako rivers. The Central British Columbia Railway and Forestry Museum displays old trains. Contemporary Canadian art is on show at Two Rivers Gallery. The Exploration Place has hands-on science exhibits. Beyond town, trails wind through wildlife-rich Eskers Provincial Park and Fort George Canyon Provincial Park, with its dramatic whirlpools