Program Contacts

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Important Information

Prospective residents should refer to the Family Medicine Residency Selection website for ongoing updates, deadlines and detailed information.

FMProC: Important timelines

For the 2025 residency selection cycle ALL FM residency programs in Canada require applicants to sit FMProC for those applying in both rounds of CaRMS. 

 

FMProC test window for CaRMS first Iteration is from October 28 (8AM ET) to November 11, 2024 (10AM ET). 

Registration opens from September 11 (12 noon ET) and closes on November 07, 2024 (10AM ET). 

 

To register and find out more about the test please go to www.fmproc.com. All test related updates will be posted on the website. 

Requests to register or to sit the test outside of the posted deadlines will not be considered. 

 

Upon completion of FMProC, you must upload your FMProC result letter to CaRMS for your application to be considered complete.

 

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General Instructions

Program application language: English

Resident selection for the UBC Family Medicine program is a collaborative process between all of our sites. Logistics and administration of resident selection is managed by our central program office in Vancouver, located at the UBC Point Grey Campus.

As the UBC Family Medicine Program is distributed into 23 unique sites and locations, candidates should apply to each site they are interested in. 
Applicants must submit same application package to all sites to which they apply.  

Regardless of the number of sites applicants apply to and rank, only one interview will be conducted. 

A variety of virtual information sessions will be held to provide prospective residents with the opportunity to learn more about the programs and discuss the training experience with faculty and current residents. Please visit Program Events for upcoming events. 

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Supporting Documentation / Information

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Review Process

Applications submitted after file review has opened on November 29, 2024

Supporting documents (excluding letters of reference) that arrive after file review has opened  on  November 29, 2024

Letters of reference that arrive after the unmasking date on November 29, 2024

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Interviews

Dates:

• January 18, 2025
• January 19, 2025
• January 20, 2025
• January 21, 2025
• January 22, 2025
• January 23, 2025
• January 24, 2025
• January 25, 2025
• January 26, 2025
• January 27, 2025
• January 28, 2025

Selection Criteria

Applicants must submit an application to each site they are interested in and should assign the same set of documents to each site. Selection is based on file review and one set of MMI interviews. Each file is reviewed and given a score. This file review score determines whether a candidate is offered an interview. The file review score is then combined with the interview score and FMPROC score to create a total score for each applicant. The file review score will contribute to 20%, interview score will contribute to 75%, and FMProC will contribute to 5% of the overall global score. A recommended rank list based on the total score is submitted to each site for consideration. The sites retain discretion to adjust the recommended rank list based on local site selection committee input.

Program goals

1. To graduate residents who have developed the competencies needed to begin independent family practice in diverse community settings
2. To deliver an effective academic, clinical and scholarly educational program
3. To graduate residents who are inspired, resilient, and balanced
4. To graduate residents who demonstrate evidence-based and reflective practice
5. To provide working and learning environments that ensure residents, faculty and staff feel respected and supported

Selection process goals

1. Identify individuals with an aptitude for family medicine who are most likely to thrive in our diverse residency sites and in the unique context of British Columbia communities
2. Identify individuals with a demonstrated solid foundation of clinical skills and clinical approach which equips them for Postgraduate Education training.
3. Identify individuals who have consistent professional behavior; who interact appropriately with patients, colleagues and staff.
4. Identify mature, motivated individuals with a broad range of life experience which they can draw upon to adapt to the demands of residency training.

File review process

Evaluation criteria :

Elective criteria

Interview process

Interview evaluation criteria :

Information gathered outside of CaRMS application

Specifically, we may consider:
Social interaction during program related events
Communication with program administration
Social media
Unsolicited reference letters
Unsolicited email references
Unsolicited verbal information on a candidate's prior performance
Unsolicited feedback from colleagues and co-workers
Other : Communication with site director or lead residents and/or a demonstrated commitment or link to Northern BC.

Ranking process

The behavior(s) exhibited below during the interview process may prevent an applicant from being ranked by our program :
Unprofessional or inappropriate behavior   
Did not attend interview   
Interview performance was not competitive   
Other : • File does not support interest in family medicine
• Interview suggests lack of non-cognitive family medicine skills

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Program Highlights

Uniquely B.C:  UBC Family Medicine

Family Medicine training in BC presents you with many unique opportunities. We are a fully accredited distributed program with 23 training sites and multiple training communities. 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, Lead 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 23 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
• North Okanagan (Vernon)
• Okanagan South (Penticton)
• Kamloops

 

Vancouver Island

• Indigenous (Victoria, Ladysmith and rural Indigenous communities including Pacheedaht, Penelakut, ‘Namgis)
• Quw'utsun (Duncan)
• 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
• Rural Immersion (Hazelton, Smithers, Vanderhoof, Mackenzie, Valemount/McBride, Chetwynd/Tumbler Ridge)
• Terrace (Rural Northwest)

 

IMG positions are offered at the following sites:

• Abbotsford-Mission
• Chilliwack
• Coastal
• Fort St. John
• Kamloops
• Kootenay Boundary
• Nanaimo
• North Okanagan
• 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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Program Curriculum

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.

Introduction

Welcome to UBC Prince George site! This training program is designed to prepare you for northern focused full-service family medicine, with influences from rural generalism, giving you the opportunity to explore both semi-urban and rural practice. You will experience a breadth of medicine and surgery applicable to full service practice and participate in regular call of varying intensity. These two short years are not designed to be exhaustive but have been shaped to achieve competency and confidence.

 

Prince George is block based for both R1 and R2, with selectives in several rotations allowing for added flexibility and customization. Our program is uniquely positioned in the North, providing block-based rotations at a regional referral hospital (with a generous compliment of specialists) while still offering authentic rural experiences. Depending on availability from year to year, you can choose to complete blocks of many core rotations (Surgery, Obstetrics, Emergency Medicine, Etc.) either in Prince George or at peripheral sites.

 

Consider our site if you:

• Enjoy the outdoors in all four seasons
• Are interested in authentic family medicine training which will prepare you for a variety of practice types
• See full-service family practice or locums in your future
• Want the ability to transition directly into northern practice.

 

Please do not consider our site if you:

• Are looking for no-call
• Do not wish to live in the North for at least the duration of residency
• Are interested in urban based “referral style” medicine

 

We have a co-site director model shared between James Card and Bron Finkelstein, both rural family physicians who trained through the Prince George site. Autonomy, self-efficacy and professionalism are key tenets of our site, with the pursuit of individual interests strongly encouraged. 

 

If you would like more information on any of our programs, please contact us by email: james.card@unbc.ca, bron.finkelstein@ubc.ca

More importantly, contact our residents; for first hand information:  pg.fm.leads@gmail.com (R2) or  pg.fm.reps@gmail.com (R1)

 

PGY 1 Overview

First year curriculum – all in Prince George unless otherwise noted. The option to do some of these rotations in Williams Lake or Quesnel is available, as an option but is not mandatory.

Rotation	Duration	Location / Notes
Family Practice	8 weeks	FP building or community practice
General Surgery	4 weeks	Also available in Williams Lake or Quesnel
Orthopedics	4 weeks
Medicine	8 weeks	6 weeks CTU, 2 weeks ambulatory care. Ambulatory care portion also available in Williams Lake
Pediatrics	6 weeks	3 weeks CTU, 3 weeks ambulatory care
Ob/Gyn	8 weeks	6 weeks Obs, 2 weeks Gynecology.
Psychiatry	4 weeks	Mix of inpatients and outpatients
Emergency	4 weeks	Also available in Williams Lake or Quesnel
Native Health Centre/Street Medicine	4 weeks
Addictions	2 weeks

 

PGY 2 Overview

The Rural rotation will be decided by the Rural Match for all BC Residents on an annual basis. Opportunities are available for longitudinal electives 

There is opportunity for interested residents to arrange extended rural exposure in R2, this extra time would come from a combination of approximately two thirds family practice and one third electives.

Rotation	Duration	Location / Notes
Family Practice	20 weeks	Prince George FP building or community practice
Rural	8 weeks	Various Locations
Emergency	8 weeks	Prince George
ICU/CCU	4 weeks	Prince George
Electives	12 weeks	Various locations with one month allowed out of province
Geriatrics	2 weeks	Horizontal rotations with FP block
Palliative Care	Over 2 years	Competency based horizontal rotation

 

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. Throughout the program, we stress "Evidence-Based Medicine" in both academic and clinical areas.

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 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.

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Training Sites

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, hike, 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 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 orthopedic 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 pediatricians 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.

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Additional Information

Prospective applicants are invited to direct their questions to our Site Directors, Dr. James Card or Dr. Bron Finkelstein, via email at james.card@unbc.ca or bron.finkelstein@ubc.ca, or to our lead residents at pg.fm.leads@gmail.com  or our R1 reps at pg.fm.reps@gmail.com.

Please connect with Dr. Card or Dr. Finkelstein if you are considering a site visit or want to arrange a zoom meet and greet with them and/or some of the residents.