PGME Year End Highlights 2022

 

As the calendar year comes to a close, the PGME Dean’s Office would like to celebrate the many accomplishments and milestones we achieved along the way.

PGME Expansion: Training More Physicians for BC

The Ministry of Health recently announced an expansion of 88 new R1 residency positions to be phased in over the next four years. In the 2023 R1 match there will be:

  • 12 new Family Medicine Residency positions
  • 10 new Royal College Program Residency positions

To coincide with this expansion, there will be:

  • A new site for the UBC Psychiatry residency program in the Interior
  • A new site for the UBC Pediatrics residency program in Fraser Valley
  • Six re-entry positions for those who have completed residency training in other programs (2 in Psychiatry, 2 in Dermatology and 2 in Public Health & Preventative Medicine).


 

Resident Wellness Office

The Resident Wellness Office began to offer Elder Support to residents in the Indigenous Medicine program and those residents who identify as Indigenous. With support provided by Elder Jean Wasegijig, there were 15 counseling sessions provided to UBC residents. In 2022 there were 15 reach outs to residents as part of the Peer Support Program.



With three counselors, in addition to Elder Jean’s support, wait times are significantly shorter than they were in 2021, with an appointment typically available within two to three weeks of inquiry. To coincide with the increased support, RWO has increased its distributed site presence across the province. This year there were in-person counselor visits to Victoria, Penticton, Chilliwack, and Kamloops. There were 34 sessions of Ice Cream and Wellness rounds, an increase from 17 in the previous academic year.

Learning Environment Actions

Over the last 18 months PGME has introduced a number of targeted proactive measures to work towards our goal of fostering a healthy, positive learning and work environment. The following report is the result of PGME’s ongoing commitment to this goal. Within it, are details of numerous targeted efforts, meetings, committees, and surveys aimed at improving the learning environment at Vancouver General Hospital and BC Children’s and BC Women’s Hospital, along with placing goals for the coming year.

For more information on the learning environment surveys administered this year by PGME referenced in the report, please see below:

Both survey’s identified themes and areas of concern via the narrative comments provided. For more details on the themes, dissemination and actions taken/planned, please reach out to Dr. Sonia Butterworth, Assistant Dean, PGME.

In response to feedback received about the learning environment, PGME presented at the Fall Program Workshop on the process for when concerns with faculty are raised. To access this presentation click here.

New PGME Faculty Leads

Within the last calendar year, PGME was pleased to welcome three new Faculty Leads to help shape residency programs across the province. Dr. Jagdeep Ubhi is the inaugural PGME Faculty Lead for Resident Affairs, Dr. Tiffany Wong is the interim Faculty Lead for Patient Safety QA/QI, and Dr. Kiran Veerapen is the inaugural PGME Faculty Lead for Faculty Evaluation & Support.


Residency Programs Organizational Processes & Structures Evaluation

The R-POPS Evaluation report was carried out in the 2020-2021 academic year, and the results and findings of the report distributed and socialized for action in 2022. The recommendations from the report can be found at this link and in the adjacent PDF file.

 

 

 

PGME Office Evaluation Report

In 2022, the Evaluation Studies Unit carried out the PGME Office Evaluation report, to review Leadership, Governance, Support & Partnerships within the UBC PGME office. The key findings from the report, complete with areas of strength and areas for improvement, can be found at this link and in the adjacent PDF file.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Program Director guide for Faculty Development

PGME has a general guide for Program Directors addressing key topics. Though not specialty specific or to be used as a comprehensive guide to the PD role, it covers many topics thoroughly and has additional support links. New information is always added as they become a priority. Follow this link to be taken to the guide.

Funding Support

In 2022, PGME reviewed the Funding Guidelines for Programs and adjusted the benchmark level for programs with 1-4 residents to be the same as programs with 5-9 residents. This moves all programs to be in line with Program Director funding for the same categories. This adjustment was reflective of the scope of work small programs carry out, and was to bring the Administrative structure in line with the Program Director structure. This had an impact on 28 Postgraduate programs in providing more resourcing support to them. 

Accreditation

Since the March 2020 Accreditation External Review, PGME has continued to work hard in order to uphold the highest standards among our programs. Eleven new programs were accredited. Four programs underwent external review, while 18 underwent internal reviews by PGME. Nine programs provided Action Plan Outcomes Reports to PGME, and in the coming year, 19 more programs will have an external review. PGME has advocated and supported all programs in difficulty in numerous ways, including providing $400,000 in resource support for workshops, courses, meetings, mentoring, among others.

Starting next year, PGME will begin the process of conducting Internal Reviews for programs that received a “Regular Review” accreditation decision in March 2020. All programs are required to have at least one internal review per 8-year accreditation cycle. The timeline for these internal reviews will be between 2023-2026. UBC’s next Accreditation External Review Site Visit will occur in 2028.

Accreditation Timeline

Competency Based Medical Education



Entrada

Together with Digital Solutions, the PGME CBME Team continues to work on system updates and collaborations with the Elentra Consortium to improve functionality for Programs, Competence Committees, and Residents.
With the continued expansion of Programs and users, an additional Systems Support Analyst joined the PGME CBME Team, which allowed expanded support initiatives such as Resident Entrada Drop-in Sessions and additional program-specific Entrada Training Sessions for all user types (Program Administrators, Program Directors, Faculty, Competence Committees, and Residents).

Area of Focused Competence (AFC) Programs

Under the leadership of our PGME AFC Faculty Lead, Dr. Hannah Carolan, UBC has received accreditation approval for 9 new AFC programs this year (Advanced Heart Failure, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Adult Interventional Cardiology, Sleep Medicine, Trauma General Surgery, Retina, POCUS, Addictions Medicine, and Brachytherapy) in addition to our pre-existing AFC program in Transfusion Medicine.

Program Workshops

In 2022, PGME hosted the Spring Program Workshop and the Fall Program Workshop for all Program Directors and Program Administrators, and engaged faculty and staff leadership to improve PGME learning environments and intrapersonal needs.

PGME also hosted the Spring All Coordinators Meeting and the Fall All Coordinators Meeting with the goal of strengthening professional credibility and self/community care respectively.

Orientations 

In addition to providing orientation sessions, PGME now sends out welcome emails to all new Program and Site Directors and Program Administrators which provides a collection of resources and information to help support them in their new roles.



 

PGME Housing & Reimbursements

In 2022, PGME has processed a total of $1,881,550 in resident reimbursements for mandated travel, housing, courses and academic events. This is up from a total of $1,576,748 in 2021.