UBC Rural Continuing Professional Development 

Coaching success

Our Rural Peer Support Network (Coaching and Mentoring Programs [CAMP] and the coaching pillars for RSON and ROAM-SP) goals are to improve rural physician and obstetrical and surgical teams’ skills, increase confidence and strengthen relationships.

2023 brought many successes for our team, including a refreshed online portal , new small group coaching: Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and Trauma Sensitive Health Group Coaching , diversified skills-based facilitators and topics (Responding to Microaggressions & Unconscious Bias and Navigating Difficult Conversations).

The program has delivered over 2100 coaching hours.

Learner successes

The learners taking part in the Rural Peer Support Network had many opportunities to increase their confidence and strengthen their relationships. Opportunities included:   

Powell River: RSON-CAMP FPA travelling to BC Children’s for Pediatric Airway mentorship 

Cranbrook: Group of POCUS providers supported the Cranbrook team with both virtual and hands-on group mentorship.   

Duncan: An Indigenous FP, registered as both coach and coachee, is now matched with a Gibsons coach on trauma-informed practice in Indigenous communities.  

Oliver: A new-to-practice physician is receiving mentorship from soon-retiring Emergency doctor on how to navigate emergency medicine, building a network and finding resources to support her practice.  

Daajing Giids/Hazelton: GP in Family Medicine will be joined Lions Gate Hospital for intubation mentorship.  

Ultrasound training

The Hands-On Ultrasound Education (HOUSE) Program has been providing high quality, closer-to-home POCUS training since UBC Rural CPD received seed funding from the Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues (JSC) in 2013. There are four streams covering emergency medicine (EM), obstetrics (OB), internal medicine (IM), and Resident ultrasound education. Over the past eight years, UBC Rural CPD has continued to develop and improve the HOUSE program by adding new clinical topics, enhancing online pre-course learning material, and developing online resources including “how -to” guides, educational videos, and the point-of-care resource BC POCUS.  

Highlights from 2023: HOUSE delivered a total of 13 course days , 4 days of HOUSE training for residents  and 2 HOUSE Pediatrics delivered for RSA community-based pediatricians.   

RTVS Simulation

RCPD supports rural physicians to build relationships with other rural providers and engage in learning activities “closer to home,” in their usual context of healthcare delivery. Our goal is to cultivate strong relationships with our partners, project stakeholders, and rural healthcare practitioners to ensure we are meeting their needs.     

Ongoing RTVS Simulation delivery: delivered 22 simulations.    

RTVS Simulation was successful in our application to the RTVS Learning Health System Pathway Grant which we used to support some of the costs related to the RTVS Residency Site Project (RSRSP). The RTVS Residency Site Project goal is to promote RTVS to UBC Family Practice residents, especially those bound for rural practice.   

RTVS Simulation delivered/supported education at 9 UBC Family Practice Residency sites and conducted four qualitative evaluation interviews with resident participants. 

Safer care

Since January 2023, the Indigenous Patient-Led program has been delivering a three-level longitudinal curriculum, Nawh Whu’nus’en – We See in Two Worlds: Trauma Sensitive Practices for Collectively Healing in Relationship. Developed and delivered by a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Elders, physicians, educators, and people with lived experience, we offer this training to rural medical providers to help create conditions that might enable culturally safer care when working with Indigenous patients.  

In the past year we have delivered education to a total of 220 learners . 47 of Level 1 learners have gone to take the first Level 2 series . Our learners include family and specialist physicians, midwives, nurses, and a range of allied health professionals – RMTs, OTs, RCCs, PTs, pharmacists, social workers, psychologists, and addictions specialists .

We have received positive feedback (both in the evaluation and via email) about the recent Nawh Whu’nus’en – We See in Two Worlds Level 2 workshop series pilot.