Emergency Education Programs

The Emergency Education Programs provide advanced training opportunities for rural physicians to develop emergency medicine expertise and leadership within their communities. Through hands-on learning, mentorship, and skills development, these programs enhance emergency care capacity in rural BC. The initiative includes the NEEP (Nanaimo Emergency Education Program), NoEEP (Northern Emergency Education Program), KEEP (Kamloops Emergency Education Program), and CoEEP (Coastal Emergency Education Program), all designed to increase emergency medicine competency outside urban centres.

“The notes and resources I made during my time at NEEP are things I reference almost every shift. I am so grateful for the training I had.”

NEEP Graduate

Achievements

Launch of the Coastal Emergency Education Program

Following the initial success of NEEP, the program has garnered the attention of UBC and the ministry, whereby the model was used to create additional sites to meet the provincial demand. This resulted in additional sites being added around the province.

Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver (CoEEP) is the most recent addition to the sister sites of Prince George (NoEEP) and Kamloops (KEEP).

From One to Many: Growing a Network of Emergency Educators

In 2024, Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver (CoEEP) graduated its first cohort of participating physicians who complete the program together. The Nanaimo Emergency Education Program (NEEP) celebrated its 18th cohort, the Northern Emergency Education Program (NoEEP) in Prince George graduated its 9th cohort, and the Kamloops Emergency Education Program (KEEP) its 3rd.

Increasing Emergency Medicine Expertise in Rural BC

The infrastructure that was created by the Emergency Education Programs has resulted in UBC expanding its College of Family Physicians of Canada Emergency Medicine (EM) training programs out of the lower mainland to have training closer to rural BC in these regional sites. This has resulted in a notable increase in residency trained CCFP( EM) providers choosing to practice in rural communities.

An unexpected by-product of these programs has been that a number of graduates have used it to catalyse their successful challenges of the CCFP(EM) certification from their rural communities. This has resulted in an increase in EM expertise remaining in rural BC.

Building Teaching Capacity Through POCUS Training

Recent Emergency Education Program graduates are incorporated as instructors into our front-loaded weeklong Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) workshop in Nanaimo that brings together all of the current cohorts and EM residents in Nanaimo. It offers graduates an opportunity to practice and enhance their teaching skills. Several have undertaken to run POCUS courses locally in their home communities with support by faculty.

Explore the numbers

88 Total graduates

As of the start of 2025 there have been a combined 88 successful graduates across all sites -NEEP (49), NoEEP (24), KEEP (12), CoEEP (3).

20 CCFP (EM) certified graduates

Twenty graduates have now become certified CCFP (EM) with another 16 in the process of preparing to sit for certification.

Making a Difference

“I was able to perform a thoracentesis in a rural setting. I would not have been able to complete this procedure prior to the NEEP training. Thank you for this program.”

NEEP Graduate

“Thank you, NEEP, for giving me the skills to be the ER doc and the ICU doc when needed. Looking forward to seeing some of you in Smithers for EDE!”

NEEP Graduate

Plans for the Future

The NEEP program is welcoming its 17th cohort of rurally focused physicians for upskilling and developing into their community’s emergency medicine local leadership in the spring of 2025. It will be the ninth year since this program was created with the foresight of the Joint Standing Committee in conjunction with the Rural Coordination Centre of BC.

Plans for 2025 include enhancing the academic programs with CoEEP and further faculty development of more advanced POCUS training at the KEEP site in Kamloops.