Okanagan South
Site Information
Number of Residents: 5 CMG, 1 IMG
Location: Penticton, Summerland and Oliver/Osoyoos, BC
Community: 90,000
Hospital: Penticton Regional Hospital and South Okanagan General Hospital
Curriculum Type: Block, Longitudinal FP
R2 Elective Time: 12 weeks
Site Director Message
Welcome to the Okanagan South/snpintktn UBC Family Practice Residency Program!
Our program is based in Penticton, and together with the six regional communities of Summerland, Oliver, Osoyoos, Keremeos, and Princeton the area has a population of approximately 90,000.
Now in our eighth year, our site was established in 2016. Our hospital, Penticton Regional Hospital, has been involved in medical training for some time, but the addition of the Family Practice residents has been a real benefit to our community. We are enlivened also by elective medical students from the UBC Southern Medical Program (Kelowna-based) and residents in internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics and sometimes other family practice residents. For the most part though, you will be the “first in line” learner.
The majority of your training will be through Penticton Regional Hospital, a 140-bed Affiliated Regional Centre site for the UBC Faculty of Medicine. Fifth year in our new Patient Care Tower and all the kinks have been ironed out. We have update spaces, new equipment, and a newly renovated ER. The UBC Faculty of Medicine space includes large video conference rooms, on-call rooms, lockers and showers, a learner’s lounge and study rooms, clinical skills rooms, and a librarian-staffed library.
This year we established the Sim Room, so after much gratitude, we no longer need Kelowna for our simulation training. We also have a new POCUS room actively being equipped with enthusiastic teachers.
Penticton has great ratio of residents to both patients and preceptors. You will benefit from a small-group learning experience in a medical community of 127 family physicians, 80 specialists, and 37 consulting staff (well, thereabouts). As a regional hospital, you will learn from a range of specialists that will round out your skills and expose you to a variety of sick patients in a supported setting. A texting relationship with your attending! For acute care, we have family medicine-oriented hospital service that is meeting the needs of attached and unattached patients. Most of our FPs have signed on to this service, and many work in the service, for an efficient ratio of in-hospital and out-of-hospital care.
Our aim is to provide high-quality family medicine residency training with a RURAL focus. You will have five blocks of rural rotation—1 block in Princeton in R1 year and 4 blocks in a rural site of your choice in R2 year. There will be a strong longitudinal attachment to a family practice home clinic with several blocks of family medicine as well as a half day back in clinic during other rotations. Residents will be able to provide ‘continuity of care’ to family practice, hospital and maternity patients.
There is extensive exposure to emergency medicine as well as specialized populations such as the Martin Street Outreach that cares for patients with coexisting mental health and substance use issues, and the Foundry for youth. We have an active and committed Division of Family Practice, with multiple initiatives, projects, and working groups. Initiatives include Patient Care Networks, developing team-based care; locum support; alternative payment progras; and management of clinics.
Penticton is a great place to live, play, work and raise a family. We encourage our residents to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Outdoor recreation opportunities include swimming, boating, windsurfing, kiteboarding, golf, rock climbing, hiking and cycling most of the year, and downhill skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing in the winter. The foodie scene is farm-to-table, and we have the largest farmer’s market in the Interior. Cultural opportunities at the Dream Cafe (music), South Okanagan Events Centre (concerts), and two amateur drama troupe. Plus there are festivals throughout the year (Elvis, Scottish, square-dancing, comic-con, Slow Food, Christmas market …) and of course PeachFest.
If you are looking for an opportunity to experience the full spectrum of family medicine with a strong rural emphasis, the Okanagan South program will prepare you for a career as a family physician in communities of any size from urban to remote. We look forward to meeting you at CaRMs and hope you feel inspired to be a part of our program.
Dr. Michelle Linekin
UBC Postgraduate Family Practice Residency Program — Okanagan South Site
3rd Floor, David Kampe Tower
550 Carmi Avenue, Penticton, BC V2A 3G6
Grateful to live on the ancestral lands of the Syil’x Okanagan peoples (www.syilx.org)
About
Contact:
murali.venkataraman@ubc.ca
CaRMS Page
Click here to view the site presentation.
Learn more about the City of Penticton here. Further details on activities are here.
Lead Resident Message
Penticton is a gorgeous city of 33,000 set between Okanagan Lake and Skaha Lake. It is a beautiful setting to relax after a full week of residency training. With over 200+ vineyards in the Okanagan Valley, stellar rock climbing, mountain biking trails, nearby ski hills, and water sports galore, it’s no wonder it is a mecca for athletes and vacationers. This setting has attracted many family practitioners and a wide variety of specialists to the area. Here are some highlights of our program:
A collegial and cohesive group of doctors who are extremely knowledgeable and friendly
From the moment you are accepted into the Okanagan South program, the community opens its doors to you! The group of family doctors and members of the community are welcoming, warm, and enthusiastic about having learners around. The staff is keen to enhance the transition to residency and help you settle in the Okanagan through numerous social and administrative events throughout the year.
Learner opportunities
Our program is growing up fast, we are now approaching 7 years since its inception. There are only family medicine residents on site. This means you are first in line for procedures, deliveries, first surgical assist, and typically have a one-on-one teacher to learner ratio. Furthermore, Penticton is also an education-based and not service-based program. We also have opportunities for addictions learning at our national award-winning Martin Street Outreach Clinic.
Continuity of care
With your entire first year and half of your second year based in Penticton, it is easy to develop relationships with patients and physicians alike. With a minimum of one-half day in your Family Practice clinic each week, you have continuity of care with your patients, can develop meaningful relationships with them, and can adjust management strategies accordingly.
Great opportunities in neighbouring locations
Throughout the curriculum, there are experiences in the small towns of Princeton, Oliver, and Keremeos. There are also opportunities to participate in experiences in more urban settings such as Kelowna and Vernon. Our experiences in these sites have been fantastic with excellent learner opportunities and a range of acuity. The curriculum also includes experience with marginalized populations at the correctional facility in Oliver, as well as the Foundry centre for youth/adolescents, and the Martin Street Outreach Centre in Penticton.
Brand-New Hospital
The brand new hospital was just completed in April 2019 and we can still smell the fresh paint. It is a $312 million dollar upgrade and it is quite incredible. Words won’t do it justice but suffice it to say we are very lucky. Although we are a rural site, our facility has an MRI, CT, MIBI, and 3D Cardiac ECHO. Our brand new UBC space is equipped with 4 call rooms, a resident-only locker room as well as a bathroom, and shower facilities. We’re also lucky to have a comfy resident lounge and a library, with a librarian on-site, for all of your research needs.
See you (virtually) at CaRMS!
From the Lead Residents,
Dr. Vicki Brannan & Dr. Jennifer Borchert