PLEASE REFER TO THE 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 – VANCOUVER ISLAND – STRATHCONA for a detailed overview of our program.

Introduction

As a Family Physician community, we provide care to around 100,000 people from Campbell River to the Comox Valley. Our community is rural, diverse, and rich with recreational and cultural opportunities. The rewards for living and working here are huge. Strathcona Park is one of the most beautiful back yards. Summer or winter, mountain or ocean, the choice of activity is immense. Our Site can support your drive to learn and become a complete rural Family Physician and supports the opportunity to go out and have fun with family and friends providing harmony to the challenge of work/life balance.

Campbell River is 50km north of the Comox Valley (comprising the communities of Courtenay Comox). Our hospital care is based in the North Island Hospital of Campbell River General Hospital (CRGH) and Comox Valley Hospital (CVH).

When matched to our Site, we ask you to provide a short “bio”. This information helps us match you to a community that supports your desires and needs and becomes your “home community” for the next two years.

The majority of your clinical activity will occur within your “home community” with some travel required for some specialist rotations, Academic Half Day (AHD) and other Academic Events.

We have 8 Residents in each teaching community of Campbell River and Comox Valley (4 R2 and 4 R1).

‘Home’ Clinics Preceptors

You are placed with a Primary Preceptor who takes responsibility to collaborate with you on planning your schedule and your evaluations. You may also be attached to a secondary Preceptor(s) either in the same clinic or a nearby clinic.

An expectation is for you is to develop competence in all aspects of Family Medicine care, from womb to tomb. It is unlikely that a preceptor practice alone is able to provide that need and so we encourage a shared preceptor model to achieve all the experiences required to develop competence in all domains of care by design rather than by chance. This multi preceptor model also provides the opportunity to experience differing styles of preceptorship, diverse office EMR familiarity, variety of staff and models of practice including running an office and the ‘Business of medicine’.

Site Ethos

We offer a lot of flexibility to help create an experience which is unique within the overarching program structure. We want you to realize your potential as a Family Physician by identifying your leaning gaps and addressing those needs locally through rotations and longitudinal experiences. If we cannot deliver your needs locally, we identify together how and where they may be met and utilize this through elective time.

We want you to embrace your medical passions to develop competence and excellence. We want you to create strong foundations for your professional identity as you progress from medical student to independent practitioner. We want you to have fun learning by engaging in and defining your learning experience.

Our Clinical Teaching Faculty are role models for rural family practice and inspire our learners with the joys of community care. Our teachers create the safe and rich learning environment in which you and our learners may flourish. You are placed at the heart of your experience.

The shared goal of our Site and Teachers is to help you discover and develop the best version of you as a rural Family Doctor.

Embrace the opportunity and enjoy the journey.

We Are Strathcona!

PGY 1 Overview

There are opportunities for you to manage your own patient population from the beginning of residency training and to support the development of your professional identity.

In July you begin with a month in your home clinic and then begin specialist rotations which occupies the majority of R1. Specialist rotations include OB (8wks), Child and adolescent health (4 weeks), Mental Health (4 weeks), Surgery (6 weeks), Addictions Medicine (2 weeks). Hospital Medicine (12 weeks — 8 weeks IM and 4 weeks Hospitalist) ER (5 weeks and longitudinal sessions) and Family Medicine (13 weeks)

Each rotation begins with a goal setting conversation with your rotation lead to help define your specialist experience. Each specialist experience is unique for each learner, guided by your needs and CCFP curriculum expectations. An example of this is Surgery. If you have plenty of experience in general surgery for example and little in orthopedics, plastics and ophthalmology, we encourage you to create a surgery rotation schedule to reflect those needs. We wish for you to identify your needs and learning gaps, so we may help you progress them to competence. During the majority of specialist rotations, you will have a day back in your “home” clinic to support your longitudinal FM experience

PGY2 Overview

The whole of R2 is dedicated to Family Medicine and can include optional 4 months Rural Elective time and 8 weeks of (optional) elective time. You also have the opportunity to integrate longitudinal experiences into your FM week including ER, OB, MSK, Dermatology, Addictions Medicine, Palliative Medicine and Indigenous Health clinics.

The majority of your two years is spent in the Family Medicine office. In the last few weeks of residency Residents may have the opportunity to cover their FM preceptor office (GP Practicum) for a maximum of 2 weeks.

Indigenous Health

We have a meaningful and rich Site Curriculum which includes a local Indigenous Health education Program followed in late R1 and R2 with Resident led on-Reserve Clinics on Friday mornings.

Academic Days

Academic teaching takes place each Friday afternoon in Comox Valley or Campbell River. When non-virtual — this means travel for half of our Residents from one teaching community to the other. The AHD comprises three one-hour teaching topics, ideally two sessions led by a specialist and one led by Residents and facilitated by a Family Physician. The Resident session supports our learners on their teaching journeys and shares learning around clinical experiences to help prepare for CCFP and independent Practice.

We cover the 99 topics, hot topics, guidelines, McMaster Modules, Behavioural Medicine and whatever your passion or need may be. We hope to keep these sessions active and learner-centred.

Each week you will have a dedicated Resident-only meeting led by the Site Resident Lead prior to AHD to promote wellness through near-peer support.

We have our extremely popular Simulation sessions every 4-6 weeks, with teaching and hands -on experience around a Simulation curriculum topic.

Research

In R1, residents complete a quality improvement project.

In R2 residents complete a scholar project

In June of each year, Residents come together for a Site Scholarship Day and present their scholarly work to our local community

Electives

We have up to 8 weeks optional elective time available. All electives are discussed and agreed with the Site Director and Primary Preceptor to help align them with your educational needs and learning gaps.

After the CCFP exam in R2, elective time may include ‘transition to practice’ time e.g. intensive OB experience prior to commencing independent practice that includes OB.

International Electives

Residents may take one month of interprovincial or international electives as part of their elective time.
This has to meet the standards required by Central Program.

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.