Island Medical Program, Victoria, BC
UPDATED Sept 26 2024
General Pediatric Residency Training Program
The mission of the UBC pediatric residency training program is to provide quality postgraduate training experiences to prepare doctors to be highly competent, confident and compassionate pediatric specialists and sub-specialists, to meet the needs of patients and communities in British Columbia.
Our goal is to equip residents to be ready for independent practice, capable of assuming a consultant’s role in pediatric careers that include excellence in clinical care, medical education, clinical research, and child health advocacy, fulfilling all the objectives of specialty training in pediatrics of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
In 2015, the program expanded to a second site in Victoria, where two residents each year are accepted into the Vancouver Island site of the program. In July 2023 we launched a Fraser region site of the program based in Surrey, the second largest city in the Metro Vancouver area, with training experiences in several other hospitals and practices in the Fraser region. Both sites offer a fantastic opportunity to be part of community-based program with lots of hands-on experience, guided by enthusiastic faculty. The Fraser region and Vancouver Island sites of the UBC Pediatrics Residency Program are fully integrated with the Vancouver site of the program. Residents from both sites will spend 6-16 weeks per year at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver doing rotations that are, by necessity, in a children’s hospital. They join the BCCH based residents in person several times a year for educational events.
A Community Impact stream of the Vancouver site was started in 2019, with a focus on addressing health inequities for underserved populations and providing care in rural and remote communities. Five months of the first year are spent in Prince George in a longitudinal community-based curriculum with a mix of inpatient and outpatient experiences, including social pediatrics, rural medicine, and multidisciplinary clinics.
In 2024 a research stream was also added to the Vancouver Site. This track provides one resident the opportunity to enhance their research interests, refine skills in research methodology, and to present and publish their work during the 4 years of pediatric residency – with an estimated six months dedicated to research within this training time. All clinical requirements aligned with Competence by Design must also be fulfilled.
There are approximately 80 residents in the program over the three sites.
Our unique combination of early sub-specialty training and broad community-based exposures prepares residents to follow many different career paths. The four year program provides exposure to acute care and ambulatory pediatrics, as well as the subspecialties, with a graded responsibility from junior to senior residency. Training in the tertiary care setting helps equip graduates with the confidence and skills necessary to treat children with significant and possibly life-threatening problems. This is complemented by time spent each year in community practices and hospitals throughout the province of BC. Residents at the Vancouver site participate in the resident continuity clinic for three years, while the Victoria and Surrey-based residents focus on longitudinal experiences throughout their training.
Our program successfully launched the Royal College’s competency based medical education program, Competence By Design, in July 2021. Our new rotation curriculum reflects the new stages of training set forth by the Royal College. In particular, careful attention has been paid to the ways in which the first-year residents transition into pediatric residency. The three-block transition stage includes a month-long orientation block. The program has focused on faculty and resident development recognizing the culture shift required to allow for more directly observed patient encounters and frequent coaching feedback needed to demonstrate competency in CBD.
Residents attend mandated academic activities, including academic half-days and Grand Rounds on a weekly basis. These are video conferenced to our distributed sites throughout the province. Residents practice resuscitation scenarios in the high-fidelity simulator program, both on acute care rotations (PICU and emergency medicine) and in their longitudinal simulation curriculum in the academic half-day. Regular mock codes take place for CTU residents. Each year there are two resident education retreats which incorporate, wellness, community building and other professional competencies; as well as a Careers Night, attended by residents from all sites.
All residents are expected to work on clinical (including quality improvement), basic science or medical education research and to present their work at least once at the annual Celebrate Research Day or another conference. First year residents take part in a year specific research curriculum during the academic half-day. The resident Journal Club is scheduled bimonthly and introduces residents to key clinical research methodologies and critical appraisal of the literature. For more information, https://pediatrics.med.ubc.ca/research/research-passport/
The Department of Pediatrics and the pediatrics residency program at UBC have an interest in social pediatrics and the health of underserved children and youth. Residents have opportunities to engage in resident- driven local health advocacy projects, outreach programs within Western Canada (including Whitehorse, Smithers/Hazelton, Hartley Bay, and Haida Gwaii), and global child health initiatives, including social pediatrics electives and electives overseas. Partnerships exist with hospitals in several countries, including South Africa and Australia.
More details are in our program descriptions on theCaRMS website
CanPrepp:
Our Vancouver site
Our Victoria site
Contacts
*For all CaRMS and Applicant Queries please contact: pediatrics.residency@ubc.ca
Please see the Education Contacts Page.