This residency program is for 5 years.

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

The resident starting in 2024 will be following the the new Competency by Design pathway for training initiated in 2021. The fundamental tenet of the Competency by Design framework is a greater emphasis on demonstrating and documenting achievement of core clinical and operative competencies. There will be substantially more attention to both clinical and operative assessments, individual learner progress, and less focus on strict time-based advancement through training. As a result of these modifications, training focus on vascular surgery starts earlier with greater early vascular surgery exposure, with less focus on off-service surgical/medical training. The off-service rotations have been significantly curtailed and now are limited to general surgery – hepatobiliary, perioperative medicine, and cardiology during the Transition to Discipline and Foundations of Discipline phases (correlating to PGY-1 to PGY-2). The remaining time is dedicated exclusively to vascular surgery training at one of the 5 core training sites.

The first two years are the Surgical Foundations years. Surgical Foundations is a core curriculum for all surgical residents at UBC during PGY-1 and PGY-2 and involve weekly seminar seminars, technical skills laboratory sessions, online case-based learning modules, Principles of Surgery Examination Review Lectures, and a series of formative assessments. This is supplemented by the CRASH course, a month-long block dedicated to certification for Advanced Trauma Life Support, critical care-focused training, and the development of foundational surgical skills (suturing, chest tubes, tracheostomy, intubation, line insertion, etc.). The Surgical Foundations program at the University of British Columbia culminates with the completion of the Royal College of Physicians Surgical Foundations Examination, a requirement of Royal College certification and completed generally during the second year of surgical training.

The last ~3 years involve comprehensive vascular surgical training. The core training will involve extensive exposure to all areas of vascular surgery at all 5 training sites. During this time residents will consolidate their knowledge and skills in the goal of becoming licensed vascular surgeons. A new facet of the Competency by Design framework is a final transition to discipline stage, where residents in the final stages of training will gain additional experience managing OR slates, organizing and running outpatient clinics, and developing skills required to have them ready to start practice.

The vascular surgery training program is supported by a robust academic curriculum. This includes weekly academic half-days with didactic teaching in addition to weekly technical skills, endovascular and open simulation, wet-lab, and case-based learning. In addition, there are monthly journal clubs, weekly city-wide rounds presentations, activities for residents-as-teachers, and weekly TEVAR rounds and Vascular-Interventional Radiology Interdisciplinary rounds.