The Core Internal Medicine Residency Program offers a curriculum of education and research that stresses superb patient care as the key to excellence in academic medicine. Trainees proceed under the guidance and supervision of a faculty whose aims and outlook are progressive and innovative.
UBC Department of Medicine Core Internal Medicine Training Program is a provincial program centralized in Vancouver. We have multiple teaching sites in the Lower Mainland which include:
- Vancouver General Hospital
- St. Paul’s Hospital
- Royal Columbian Hospital
- Surrey Memorial Hospital
We also have expanded training sites outside of the Lower Mainland and during the three core years of training all residents will be scheduled for some rotations in these expansion sites.
Accommodation will be provided as will travel costs.
PGY1 – PGY4 Core Program
1. Boot Camp – 4 weeks (first block)
2. Intensive Care Unit – 4 weeks
3. Coronary Care Unit – 4 weeks
4. Clinical Teaching Unit (Jr) – 20 weeks
5. Subspecialty Elective – 20 weeks
Boot Camp
The Internal Medicine Boot Camp will be offered over two consecutive 11-day cycles for half of our incoming PGY-1’s at a time during the first block of the academic year. This is a new strategy to help our incoming residents quickly transition to the responsibilities of an IM junior with a focus on key cognitive and procedural skills required to recognize and manage acutely ill or deteriorating patients, particularly while on call. The objective of the Boot Camp is to provide our Juniors with the necessary skills to function safely and competently in the acute setting.
We aim for our residents to use this protected academic time to review and apply pre-reading assignments, practice problem-solving, and/or key components of actions they will be required to undertake while on inpatient services, under expert faculty guidance.
Fundamental Critical Care Skills Course (FCCS)
This is a mandatory course offered at the beginning of the PGY1 year during Bootcamp.
Technology in Medicine Course
This is a mandatory course offered at the beginning of the PGY1 year during Bootcamp. The course will train residents in procedures and ultrasound use.
Out of Province and/or Research Electives
Residents are allowed one research and one out of province elective each year of residency. Residents wishing to do an elective out of province or to do a research elective are allowed to do so but need to obtain permission from the Internal Medicine Program Director via a signed Out-of-Province Elective form or Research Rotation form. Residents on remediation/probation are not allowed to do Out of Province Electives.
1. Coronary Care Unit – 8 weeks
2. Clinical Teaching Unit (Sr) – 16 weeks
3. Community Care – 4 weeks
4. Subspecialty Electives – 24 weeks
Out of Province and/or Research Electives
Residents are allowed one research and one out of province elective each year of residency. Residents wishing to do an elective out of province or to do a research elective are allowed to do so but need to obtain permission from the Internal Medicine Program Director via a signed Out-of-Province Elective form or Research Rotation form. Residents on remediation/probation are not allowed to do Out of Province Electives.
1. Intensive Care Unit – 8 weeks
2. Clinical Teaching Unit (Sr) – 12 weeks
3. Ambulatory Care – 8 weeks
4. Subspecialty Electives – 24 weeks
Out of Province and/or Research Electives
Residents are allowed one research and one out of province elective each year of residency. Residents wishing to do an elective out of province or to do a research elective are allowed to do so but need to obtain permission from the Internal Medicine Program Director via a signed Out-of-Province Elective form or Research Rotation form. Residents on remediation/probation are not allowed to do Out of Province Electives.
Core Residency Curriculum
Academic Half Day runs for 4 hours every Wednesday afternoon and is a mandatory component of the program. This is protected time for the residents and all services are expected to release residents from ward/patient duties. Lectures are held at VGH and video broadcast to our satellite locations.
Topic, format (didactic and/or interactive), and speaker selection at AHD are determined by the AHD organizing committee, which consists of a vast representation of the target audience (4 Chief Medical Residents, class representatives from each year, other representatives in the PGY-1, 2 and 3 years who express a special interest in medical education) and the Associate Program Director for Curriculum.
The Internal Medicine Program has recognized that resident well-being is an essential component of any postgraduate medical department. As such, the Program has developed a Wellness Initiative to identify barriers to resident wellness and equip residents with the skills and tools to overcome these obstacles. The goal of this Initiative is to create a resident-run Leadership Committee which will be a platform for resident-initiated ideas and solutions to improve the Internal Medicine residents' wellness. The curriculum is flexible, with changes being implemented based on resident feedback and ideas, and will be developed with longitudinal goals.
As health advocates, physicians are expected to responsibly use their expertise and influence to advance the health and well-being of individual patients, communities, and populations. As part of the Health Advocacy Curriculum residents are expected to:
- Attend formal education sessions relating to Health Advocacy including didactic sessions at academic half-day and workshops at the annual resident retreat.
- Participate in a minimum of one Health Advocacy project that fulfills at least one aspect of the CanMEDS Health Advocate key competencies
This is an annual retreat held over 2 - 3 days period in Whistler, in December. All residents are welcome to attend. A formal educational session will be held on Thursday and is mandatory for all residents attending the retreat. A dinner is held on Thursday. Accommodation can be booked through the Chief Residents. The cost per night is generally $30 - $50 per person depending on the amount of support we receive.
It is expected you will cover on-call duties - this retreat does not excuse you from these duties should your service require you be on-call. Should you choose not to attend the retreat it is expected you will remain on your service.
Resident Research Day is held in May/June of each year and gives the residents a forum for the presentation of ongoing research. Traditionally, the event is held during the day and is followed by a reception for residents as well as faculty.
Plans for Research Day begin in October of each year and will commence with a series of deadlines that residents must meet thereafter: Submitting the name of their mentor, title of their project, and abstract. Residents will be emailed information on Research Day throughout the year.
The next Resident Research Day will be on June 7, 2023.
In 2007 the Department of Medicine Residency Training Program, under the guidance of Dr. Amanda Hill, established the International Health Program in the Department of Medicine. The International elective program has been in place for 8 years and 62 residents have participated to date as well as 29 faculty visits. There are 4 team visits each year. Each team consists of 1 Internal Medicine specialist and 2 senior residents or 1 Senior Internal Medicine Fellow already Certified in Internal Medicine and 2 senior residents in Internal Medicine.
We completed our five-year commitment to Donald Fraser Hospital and since 2013 we have been working at the Gulu Regional hospital allied with the Gulu University Medical School in post-conflict northern Uganda. We are members of a coalition of universities working in this area - the University of Manchester and MacMaster University through the Uganda-UK alliance and have committed to supporting this program for five years. Our work in Gulu is supporting the clinical care that is provided in the regional hospital that is very under-resourced in terms of staff and goods. This provides the residents with a chance to understand the impact of poverty on health and well being and learn about diseases that are uncommon in Canada. The residents and faculty are very involved in bedside teaching of 3rd and 5th-year medical students from the Gulu Univerity Medical school. There are also Medical officers on the ward who have little organized teaching and they also benefit from the input from the UBC staff.