Subspecialty Training in Geriatric Medicine (R4)

Program Contact

Name:	Dr. Martha Spencer
Title:	Program Director
Email:	mspencer@providencehealth.ca

Important Information

Criteria:

At this time the UBC Division of Geriatric Medicine ONLY accepts residents through the CaRMS Medicine Subspecialty Match into the Subspecialty training program or Visa-sponsored Residents from Gulf States. We are not able to take any Clinical or Research Fellows.
Canadians or Permanent Residents who are currently in their R3 year of training in a Canadian University Internal Medicine Core Program.
Canadians or Permanent Residents who are graduates of a Canadian medical School who are currently in their R3 year of training in an accredited US ACGME accredited Internal Medicine Core Program.
For further information please consult the CaRMS website: https://www.carms.ca.

Join Our Residency Family!

Program Highlights

Geriatric Medicine at UBC is well established in Canada as a division and training program and is unique as a province-wide training program offering opportunities to train with our diverse faculty in different models of care at multiple sites throughout British Columbia.

Our residents are exposed to a broad range of experiences including in-hospital acute care of the older adult (ACE) units, consultation, rehabilitation, community care, specialized clinics, residential care, as well as rural outreach.

UBC Geriatric Medicine is a large division with highly active clinical, educational, research interests, and leadership roles. This includes strong links with community-based geriatricians across the province, Care for Elders Family Physicians, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Geriatric Psychiatry, and Geriatric Cardiology. Special emphasis is made on acute care geriatrics, and faculty and residents collaborate maintain an active presence on Clinical Teaching Units and Acute Care geriatrics units. Trainees can choose from specialized ambulatory clinics including Cardiology, Continence, Dementia/Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Falls Prevention, Kidney Disease, Movement Disorders, Osteoporosis, and Pre-operative assessment, among others. Our fellows consider their longitudinal clinic a highlight of their training where they follow patients over their entire two years and develop skill in practice management. The Division and resident staff are vibrant, dedicated, collegial and diverse.

A Chief Resident for each PGY-year collaborates with the Program Director and the RTC to review and develop the Academic program tailored to trainee needs. The program includes an academic half-day every Wednesday and teleconferenced province-wide division Grand rounds and Journal Clubs. Another highlight is our annual Resident Retreat is held each spring, concentrating on non-Medical Expert Competencies.

Required resources (e.g. AGS syllabus, Geriatrics At Your Fingertips, society memberships) are provided to each resident. Electronic resources include e-mail access, internet access, Up to Date, and Medline access. Our program uses One45 for rotation scheduling and program evaluation and Entrada for resident portfolios and EPA observations.

Special opportunities in the program include mandatory rural Northern Outreach trips in each year of training. National and international conferences are funded annually for residents, including the Annual Canadian Geriatrics Society Residents' Day and one international review course (eg. Edinburgh, Harvard, or UCLA). Residents are mentored in their research and scholarly projects while in the program and are strongly encouraged and supported to present at conferences. Our residents are also key role models for our specialty through involvement in student and resident teaching, and with national and UBC-based interest groups.

The program stresses education over service, and there are minimal call requirements: These are scheduled during rotations on core geriatrics services. All geriatric services are designed to allow residents the ability to partake in all educational experiences e.g. courses, workshops, conferences. There are numerous social events including Summer BBQ and New Year gatherings, and residents with families are supported in maintaining work-life balance.

Program Curriculum

This residency program is for 2 years. All training is supervised by Royal College Certified Specialists. Training experiences are planned to ensure necessary exposure to clinical experiences to meet and exceed training requirements in Geriatric Medicine and to leverage observation opportunities for Entrustable Professional Activities at each stage. In addition, selectives and electives allow training to be tailored to individual needs and goals. This can include further geriatric medicine rotations in Vancouver, throughout B.C., North America, or the world.

Transition to Discipline includes of a week-long Bootcamp providing orientation to our training sites along with essential knowledge and skills to begin Geriatric Medicine training. Clinical experiences are on the Acute Care unit, inpatient consult service(s), and clinics at the main teaching sites in Vancouver.

Foundations of Discipline includes experiences in:

Inpatient consult services
Acute Care Units
Clinics (both General Geriatric and specialty)
Community Geriatrics (including home visits and residential care)
Research / scholarly project work

Core of Discipline includes experiences in:

Physiatry
Geriatric psychiatry
Palliative care
Community geriatrics (including home visits and residential care)
Multiple subspecialty clinics
Inpatient consult services
Acute care units

Transition to Practice includes:

Junior attending (Acute care units; a CTU selective)
Junior attending (Consult service)
A selective in administration and leadership with senior geriatricians

Longitudinal experiences include:

Fellow's longitudinal clinic
Mentored scholarly project work towards a mandatory project that is to be planned and completed during fellowship. Residents are encouraged to present their work at the Department of Medicine annual resident research day.
Northern Outreach - at least 2 trips each year to the Northern Health Authority region for a Geriatric Medicine clinic of 1-3 days supervised by a Geriatrician and usually accompanied by a geriatric psychiatrist.

Training Sites

Primary Sites:
Providence Health Care (St. Paul's Hospital, Mt. St. Joseph's Hospital, Holy Family Hospital),
Vancouver Hospital, (Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Hospital),
Victoria (Victoria General Hospital & Royal Jubilee Hospital)

Secondary Sites:
Burnaby/New Westminster (Royal Columbian Hospital, Burnaby Hospital),
Richmond (Richmond General Hospital)
White Rock (Peace Arch Hospital),
Surrey (Surrey Memorial Hospital),
North Shore Geriatric Services (Lion's Gate Hospital),
Multiple community sites & facilities.

Internal Medicine Residents/Medical Student Electives

Out of Province/Visiting Electives

A number of electives are available in BC at multiple sites around the province, including many in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. All electives are for students in their final year of training and must be arranged through the UBC Undergraduate office: http://mdprogram.med.ubc.ca/visiting-student-elective-program/.

RESIDENCY & EDUCATION

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