Kamloops

• City of Kamloops
• Activity Program
• Site Presentation

Site Director Message

Welcome to the UBC Family Practice Residency program in Kamloops, British Columbia. We are a community with an enthusiastic and diverse medical community committed to teaching excellence.

Our program is designed to provide you with high-quality community-based family practice, obstetrical and inpatient experience. We have integrated each element using the best of block and horizontal teaching schedules. We focus on the core elements required for Family Practice training, while immersing you in diverse clinical experiences to help you transition into practice after our program. FUN is part of our philosophy.

Kamloops has a wealth of recreational and cultural activities. We have first-class skiing and mountain biking at Sun Peaks Resort. During normal times, Thompson Rivers University is a vibrant university campus including the newest law school in Canada. There is a nightly summer Music in the Park program and a creative Arts and Theatre community that will re-emerge even stronger after the COVID-19 pandemic. Kamloops is known as the Tournament Capital of Canada, and we are home to the WHL Kamloops Blazers.

Increasingly, health care is delivered through team-based care. We aim to help you make the most of team-based medicine, which is now operational in a few of our community family medicine settings.

Health care systems and information constantly change based on emerging evidence. Our site faculty and preceptors will help you develop the skills you need to manage change and foster personal development in the process. A goal of our program is to help you prepare for an enjoyable life as a Family Physician, knowing that you have solid skills practicing in the broad field of Family Medicine.

We are in unprecedented times given the current COVID-19 pandemic, and our site has continued to provide exceptional clinical experiences during this time. Our residents have been integrated as health professionals responding to our patient and population needs. I am personally grateful for the health care culture in Kamloops.

Kamloops is a community that will embrace and supports you in your clinical, academic, and personal pursuits. We look forward to meeting you in July!

Dr. Johaan van Heerden

Lead Resident Message

• Mainly block-based model with some longitudinal features.

• • On off-service rotations, we spend four days on the rotation and one full academic day or full family medicine clinic day

• Longitudinally, we follow long-term care patients and obstetric patients throughout our training.

• • For obstetric patients, we are involved in prenatal, intra-partum and postpartum care.

• Many primary preceptors have hospital privileges and care for their own inpatients, do OB, long-term care/geriatrics, and/or palliative care.

• • We try to match residents with preceptors with similar areas of interest.

• We work with 2 or more family medicine preceptors to give us a good scope of exposure.
• New resident lounge and 5 call rooms built in 2016!

Centered in Family Medicine

One of the great strengths of this program is that family medicine exposure is continuous over two years. This ensures the opportunity to apply concepts learned on specialty rotations back to your home practice.  We have full day clinics every other week to allow you to build your own cohort of patients to follow. In addition, many of the specialty rotations are focused on family medicine learning and tailor your learning experiences. For example, there is a weekly pediatric clinic that is run by the family medicine residents.

Little Competition for Learning Opportunities

There are 6 UBC 3^rd year medical students, 16 FM residents, and a few elective 4^th year clerks and visiting specialty residents throughout the year. You are usually the only learner on rotation.  There are some exceptions, with Pediatrics and Gen Surg often having other learners. However, there is plenty of work to go around you aren’t fighting over learning exposure. You work directly with staff and are first in line for consults, procedures, deliveries, surgical assists, etc.

Emphasis on Your Learning

Our program is relatively new and there is very little dependency on resident servitude. The majority of rotations and preceptors are keen to facilitate your learning and build rotations around FM centered learning.  Preceptors respect and appreciate your learning goals and their expectations are scaled accordingly (meaning minimal scut).  Call is variable but often scheduled by yourself or with your preferences in mind.

Strong Academic Curriculum

Our curriculum and behavioural medicine faculty continuously work to improve our academic curriculum. Faculty provide lectures on the 99 key topics for our CCFP exam. We have behavioural medicine lectures on topics like end of life ethics, mindfulness for patients, and reflective practice. Our program is open to topic suggestions and incorporates them into our academic days.

We have an excellent SIM lab built with high fidelity models and dedicated staff who have been amazing for teaching at our regular SIM sessions. We also have ultrasound teaching regularly as part of our academic days.

Collegial Medical Community

The residency program has been very well received in Kamloops and they have welcomed us as part of the medical community. The enthusiasm amongst preceptors here is unparalleled. Consultants on other services in the hospital will let you know about their interesting case or to perform procedures.

Opportunity to Leave Your Mark

Even though we are an established program, we are still working hard to improve. Each resident has the opportunity to improve the program. Our program director openly solicits feedback and has been diligently working incorporate our feedback.  Major changes in the past have included adding opportunities for longitudinal long-term care/geriatrics, providing options for additional ER and hospitalist shifts, and adapting the definition of FM call to ensure we can see more of what we want to see.

Tertiary Care & Rural Exposure

Kamloops is a Level 2 trauma center located at the junction between three major highways, several major ski hills, and a number of lakes/rivers. The emerg here is busy both summer and winter. Kamloops is also a major referral center for the surrounding communities. There is also opportunity to work in the surrounding rural communities such as Chase and Merritt. High volume plus low number of learners means that your clinical exposure here will be top notch. Kamloops has quite a good volume of interesting pathology!

Work-Life Balance & Life in Kamloops

Our program directors strongly encourage that we make time for the things we love outside of medicine. There are lots of opportunities to be involved activities outside of medicine. There is a thriving outdoor community: mountain biking trails in town, a local ski hill, hiking trails, and much more. There are tons of nearby lakes to explore. There are also 6 local breweries and a winery!

The people in Kamloops are incredibly welcoming. For a city of 90,000 people, there are lots opportunities in town. There are museums, a symphony, an art gallery, free outdoor concerts every night in July and August, and more.

CHALLENGES OF THE KAMLOOPS PROGRAM:

Opportunity to Teach

There are 6 UBC 3^rd year medical students and we do get the occasional 4^th year elective student. Aside from that, there aren’t many junior learners. If you’re keen to teach, you’ll have to seek out those opportunities. If you aren’t, teaching expectations are low. In the past, residents have done presentations or workshops targeted to the medical students or hosted OSCE practices — it’s possible, just requires you to be more proactive.

We Don’t Have Every Service

Kamloops is a tertiary care center, but we don’t have thoracic surgery or cardiac surgery. If it’s important to you to have exposure to these services during your residency, you can use elective time.

IN SUMMARY

We’re confident that the Kamloops program will train you to be great family doctors who will be able to provide comprehensive care for your future patients.

Dr. Taishya Wolford & Dr. Samantha Keeling