Message from the Site Director
In order to be considered for this program you need to directly contact the site director to express interest at james.card@unbc.ca
This is a new site this year and is unlike any other family practice residency site out there! If you see yourself practicing in a small rural community following graduation, or if you are looking to better hone the skills necessary to become a total clinician, please read on!
Site information is available at the bottom of this page.
Check out our site video here.
Our current list of eligible communities includes:
Mission Statement
The rural immersion program provides authentic full-service family medicine training, where residents learn through lived experience in variable-resource practice. This stream provides the self-directed learner with hands-on training directly from rural mentors.
Site Purpose
Full scope training such that upon graduation the resident is competent in a low resource rural hospital setting – ER / office / OBS / inpatients
I do expect this list to change slightly over time. If you are thinking about a specific community in particular, please reach out to me. Our plan is to match residents to this program, and then go through an internal matching process for the resident to choose the community of their choice. This is key in ensuring flexibility for the resident in the Rural Immersion program.
To be clear, due to the constraints of the CaRMS process, we cannot match to the individual community sites at the CaRMS level. It is 100% our intention to do our best to fulfill the resident request during the internal match. If multiple Rural Immersion program residents have the same community preference, previous community connection would take precedent. Connection to the community could be previous time in the community, family members living there, previous training in the community, etc. That said, we are highly interested in all applicants with demonstrated rural interest, regardless of location.
Our site is for you if:
- You see yourself practicing in a small rural community
- You see value in rural family physicians training future rural family physicians in an environment that is similar to your future practice environment
- You value autonomy, flexibility, responsibility, and are keen to participate in a program where you are actively involved in curricular development decisions
- You value strong relationships with preceptors, patients, and the healthcare team
- You have a preference for living in a smaller rural community
- You want to develop a solid skill set that will prepare you for independent rural practice. This skill set includes clinic skills, ER skills and hospital-based skills such as inpatient management, obstetrical skills, etc.
This site is probably not for you if:
- You want a conventional, rotation-based residency with training by multiple specialties
- You want a firm pre-planned schedule for your training, mapped out far in advance
- You are uncomfortable with living and working in a small rural community
So what makes us unique?
As mentioned above, the rural immersion site is new and a bit different than anything else out there.
- At this site, the resident will be based in a small rural community for the duration of your residency. You will be learning from family physicians and will maintain a flexible schedule such that if there is an experience that comes up [interesting ER case, delivery, specialist clinic, etc.] it is anticipated that you will participate.
- You will track your experiences with an online checklist approach.
- Any emerging deficits in experience [for example pediatrics] will be identified and a rotation in a larger center will be arranged.
- It will be expected that residents meet the full diversity of expected experiences. Beyond that, we are happy to support experiences based on resident interest. It is our hope and intention that this can be achieved within the small rural community as much as possible, but elective opportunities outside of the home community are available.
- Once residents match to the site through CaRMS we do an internal match for our communities. We will strive to place the resident in their first choice community. We will always have more communities than residents, so the intention is to be able to support resident choice.
- In terms of academic time and administrative support, this site will be associated with the two other sites in Prince George [Prince George and Northern Rural sites].
- This will obviously involve some travel. All necessary travel that is approved by the program will be covered as per UBC policy.
- All of our community training sites are also teaching sites for the hybrid integrated clerkship, so there is a strong chance that there will be overlap with third-year medical students giving opportunities for teaching.
Who am I?
I am James Card, the site director for the Prince George, Northern Rural, and Rural Immersion Family Practice Programs. I am a UBC Northern Medical Program graduate and a graduate of the Prince George Family Practice Residency Program. I am currently a rural physician with my clinical practice in Valemount, a community of 1000, three hours away from our referral centers. I am passionate about full-service family practice and Rural medicine. It is my goal to create a program that excels in transitioning residents into competent and confident physicians for Northern and Rural British Columbia and Canada.
Who are we?
Based in Prince George, our team represents the Prince George and Northern Rural sites in addition to the Rural Immersion site. Combined, we are one of the largest and most established of the UBC Family Practice residency sites. We have been training residents out of Prince George since 1995.
The community [communities]:
Each community is different. Some have some specialty services including OR, and others are smaller with only ER and inpatient services within their hospital. There are advantages to both. As mentioned above, any experiences not available in the small community would necessitate a rotation in a larger center. If you want information on any of the individual communities, please don’t hesitate to reach out, I would be more than happy to help answer any questions, and even connect you with preceptors within some of our candidate communities [including myself!]. Most of them are recent Prince George residency graduates themselves.
If you are interested, please do not hesitate to reach out. We have two residents who are currently piloting experiences in two of the small communities. I’d be happy to connect you with them as well if you want their perspective.
I hope to chat with you soon!
Dr. James Card MD, CCFP
Site Information
Number of Residents: 4 CMG
Communities: options include Smithers (5500), Burns Lake (2700), Vanderhoof (1500), Quesnel (23,000), Mackenzie (3600), McBride (500), Valemount (1000), Tumbler Ridge (2500),Chetwynd (2500)Hospital: varies per communityCurriculum Type: Longitudinal Family Practice
R2 Elective Time: Resident Driven Contacts: Site Director:Dr. James CardSite Coordinator:Roghieh Soufinia
Overview
**In order to be considered for this program you need to directly contact the site director to express interest, james.card@unbc.ca **
Hi, welcome to the Rural Immersion site.
This is a new site this year and is unlike any other family practice residency site out there! If you see yourself practicing in a small rural community following graduation, or if you are looking to better hone the skills necessary to become a total clinician, please read on!
Why choose this site?
- more resident autonomy with a focus on flexibility
- more responsibility and hands-on training from the beginning and throughout the two-year residency, compared to other rotational schedules
- education that is tailored to smaller communities requiring a larger skillset, optimizing preparation for practice in those environments
- experience longitudinal medicine, where better understanding of care is developed and follow up with patients is ensured
- build strong relationships with your preceptors, patients, and local healthcare team in a smaller, close knit setting – you will be a member of the team, and a member of the community
- the opportunity to live in an amazing small rural community…with resident choice in community selection
Description:
As a resident at this site you will be based in one of our smaller rural communities for the duration of your residency. There will be opportunity for any needed experience in larger centers throughout the two years depending on exposure gaps identified. The learning is independent and autonomous, where schedules are developed alongside the family practitioners within the community.
Your residency experience is very much a unique individual training experience. Unlike other rotational components, the curriculum will be managed through a checklist approach, with overall objectives aligning with the other UBC sites. There are no specific or planned rotations. The curriculum will be achieved through an integrated longitudinal approach where residents work in numerous rural family practice roles (rural FPs do it all!)
It is anticipated that the vast majority of curriculum objectives will be achieved in the small rural site with rural family physicians training future rural family physicians!
The site would primarily be supported by the administration team based in Prince George [Prince George and Northern Rural]. There would be local administrative contacts as well. Academic time would be shared with the Prince George programs, with in-person attendance for hands-on sessions, and virtual attendance otherwise. Resident events such as the CARE course, scholar day, and resident retreats would be shared with the other two Prince George programs. As travel is more frequent in this stream, there is a more flexible approach to travel reimbursement. The training communities are also involved in training medical students as hybrid ICC sites, offering ample teaching opportunities for the resident.
Our current list of eligible communities includes:
- Smithers
- Burns Lake
- Vanderhoof
- Quesnel
- Mackenzie
- McBride/Valemount [based in Valemount]
- Tumbler Ridge/Chetwynd [based in Chetwynd]
I do expect this list to change slightly over time. If you are thinking about a specific community in particular, please reach out to me. Our plan is to match residents to this program, and then go through an internal matching process for the resident to choose the community of their choice. This is key in ensuring flexibility for the resident in the Rural Immersion program.
Due to the complexity of the CaRMS process, we cannot match to the individual community sites at the CaRMS level. It is 100% our intention to do our best to fulfill the resident request during the internal match. If multiple Rural Immersion program residents have the same community preference, previous community connection would take precedent. Connection to the community could be previous time in the community, family members living there, previous training in the community, etc. That said, we are highly interested in all applicants with demonstrated rural interest, regardless of location.
Thanks for reading this through!
Please reach out with any questions. This is a great opportunity for residents that are looking for a career in rural practice and want to be actively involved in helping to shape their own education by tailoring the residency experience towards their own learning goals.
Email me with any questions, james.card@unbc.ca
James
I am James Card, the site director for the Prince George, Northern Rural, and Rural Immersion Family Practice Programs. I am a Northern Medical Program graduate and a graduate of the Prince George Family Practice Residency Program. I am currently a rural physician with my clinical practice in the small community of Valemount. I am passionate about full-service family practice and Rural and Remote medicine and I love the North! It is my goal to create a program that excels in transitioning residents into competent and confident physicians for Northern and Rural British Columbia.
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. SIM sessions are frequently part of the weekly academic time.
In June of each year, residents will come together for a mandatory Site-Specific Scholarship Day in Prince George.
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 our local [Prince George] 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.
Training Sites
Our current list of eligible communities includes:
Smithers, Burns Lake, Vanderhoof, Quesnel, Mackenzie, McBride/Valemount, Tumbler Ridge/Chetwynd
I do expect this list to change slightly over time. If you are thinking about a specific community in particular, please reach out. Our plan is to match residents to this program, and then go through an internal matching process for the resident to choose the community of their choice.
I am more than happy to provide information about each of the individual communities. I’m also happy to connect you with one of the two residents who are currently piloting this experience.
Please feel free to reach out to me by email: james.card@unbc.ca
Resident testimonial:
As this is a new site, there is currently no lead resident available to comment. We do have a resident piloting the site in the community of Quesnel.
Kacper Niburski, Current R1 Rural Immersion Site, Quesnel community site
Hi! I’m Kacper, one of the residents piloting the Rural Immersion program in Quesnel, BC. This program is like none other – literally. I’ve been fortunate to focus on different aspects of family practice that interests me, from emergency to general clinic to anesthesia. I can tailor my curriculum with the surrounding family practitioners to better hone skills I want. No other experience allows that constant improvement! Acute, chronic, procedural skills – you name it! I’ll add that it has been an incredible experience to witness longitudinal care, not to just rotate in and out of the clinic without follow up. If you’re looking for a program that’ll turn you into a clinician you want to be, highly consider the rural immersion program in BC! Feel free to contact me if you have questions. kacperniburski@gmail.com
Contact Information
PLEASE NOTE: contact information is for academic purposes only and not for patient-related matters.
For any general program information including curriculum, CaRMS applications, internal matching to rural communities, please reach out to:
Program Site Director, Dr. James Card, james.card@unbc.ca.
For any community specific information, please reach out to each community lead preceptor:
| Chetwynd | Dr. Bron Finkelstein | Bron.Finkelstein@northernhealth.ca |
| Tumbler Ridge | Dr. Claire Lenouvel | claire.lenouvel@gmail.com |
| Mackenzie | Dr. Lindsey Dobson | lindseydobson12@gmail.com |
| Quesnel | Dr. Nick Jawanda | nickjawanda@hotmail.com |
| Valemount | Dr. James Card | James.Card@unbc.ca |
| McBride | Dr. Jessica Burian | jma.burian@gmail.com |
| Vanderhoof | Dr. Aryn Khan | amkhan@ualberta.ca |
| Dr. Dave Whittaker | dvwhittaker@icloud.com | |
| Burns Lake | Dr. Samya Vellani | samya.vellani@gmail.com |
| Dr. Privia Randhawa | privia@student.ubc.ca | |
| Smithers | Dr. Marlowe Haskins | marlowe.haskins@ubc.ca |
PLEASE NOTE: contact information is for academic purposes only and not for patient-related matters.