Victoria

Director and Chief Resident

		City of Victoria		Site Presentation
		Activity Program

Site Director Message

Welcome to the Victoria Site of the UBC Family Practice Residency Training Program.

Victoria Site provides a comprehensive and flexible program that can be adapted to your individual learning requirements in your quest to fulfill your future as a well rounded Family Physician. Our R1 program introduces and orients you to the specially of Family Medicine with the Block of “Introduction to Family Medicine” which you will complete early in the R1 year. Our partial horizontal curriculum for the R2 year provides opportunity you to explore areas of interest and fulfill your personal learning objectives during the second year of residency.

Our Site is based in Victoria, a medium sized city with a population of 325,000. Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, is blessed with a sub Mediterranean climate. The outstanding natural beauty of the area encourages an active life style.

A important part of the mission of our Site is “the development of skilled primary care Physicians who are effective providers of comprehensive community based health care and the wide variety settings of British Columbia, with the focus on under serviced populations."

Our graduating Family Practice Residents develop the skills enabling them to practice in rural and remote communities as well as in urban settings. Those of our graduating residents with special interests have a successful record of being accepted into third year training programs. Our graduates practice far and wide, provincially, nationally and internationally in all types of settings.

All Family Practice Residents are based in community settings in the South Island region from Greater Victoria to Sidney, and from Sooke to Duncan, for their Family Medicine experience. The majority of placements are with Preceptors in the Greater Victoria area. Acute care in-hospital experience is obtained at the Royal Jubilee and Victoria General Hospitals. Both hospitals are up to date facilities. The Patient Care Centre at the Royal Jubilee Hospital opened just this past year. The Family Practice Emergency rotations are completed in the Emergency Departments of Royal Jubilee Hospital and Victoria General Hospital as well as the highly regarded Emergency Department at Cowichan District Hospital in Duncan

The Victoria lifestyle encourages a variety of outdoor activities. You can expect to sail, golf, play tennis, kayak, cycle and jog outdoors all year round. Skiing, hiking and fishing are close by. Arts and entertainment are also an important part of life in Victoria.

We believe your quality of life as a resident is important and this is emphasized. We work hard to provide supports to enhance resident resiliency during the busy years of residency. Our Site is family oriented and we always enjoy the families and babies of our residents. Our Residents traditionally come many different Universities across Canada and form close and collegial relationships within their group.

We provide a Residency Training program with excellent clinical volume and great teachers, that will give you the skills that you need to practice Family Medicine in any area which you might choose.

Dr. Lys Fonger

MD, CCFP, FCFP, Dip Sport Med (CASM)

Site Director

UBC Family Practice Residency Program, Victoria Site

Chief Resident Message

Victoria is a residency training program with fantastic opportunities for learning. It has a long tradition of internship and the reputation of training some of the most able doctors in the province. In fact, the strength of our training is exemplified annually by the match rate for competitive R3 programs.

More importantly, in Victoria, you are never “JUST a family practice resident”. A large portion of the hospital is run by well-respected community family physicians. Many specialist and staff physicians were once interns or residents themselves in Victoria, who appreciate the timeline residents face in which to acquire skills for their future practice. They welcome Family Medicine residents working closely with them, and value the fact that some of the residents will choose to continue to collaborate with them once their residency has been completed. Whether in the operating rooms, office, clinics, or running Code Blues, they are fantastic resources of knowledge who are keen to share. Another fantastic opportunity in the Victoria program is the ability to work with medical students. The UBC Island Medical Program (IMP) has been an integral part of the residency program, and the opportunity to work with and teach medical students is well balanced with the need for us to continue as learners ourselves. The opportunity to pursue international medicine is also available, as a group of physicians return to Vanuatu on a regular basis, and encourage residents to join them while on elective.

Victoria also offers a well-rounded and balanced site. The program offers an excellent base in Family Medicine with family doctor preceptors who have full service practices and are keen teachers. Learning continues through hospital-based rotations with preceptors coming from both specialist and general practice backgrounds. The level of responsibility is high, as there are very few senior specialty residents in Victoria, despite the fact that both Victoria General Hospital and Royal Jubilee Hospital are major tertiary care centres for the entire Vancouver Island. As a result of this, the program prepares residents to quickly become competent physicians in both urban and rural settings, and able to manage both high acuity situations and complicated patients. With the new state-of-the-art Royal Jubilee Hospital Patient Care Centre having just opened its doors, now is an exciting time to be a resident in Victoria.
On the flip side, living in Victoria offers fantastic social and recreational opportunities, with the great weather to enjoy them! Within close proximity to downtown, one can find many provincial parks, white sandy beaches, hiking along the West Coast trail, surf in Tofino, kayak in the inner harbour, snowboarding at Mount Washington, or shopping, and nice dinner after sampling the abundant local micro-breweries. There are also plenty of cultural activities to explore: Royal BC Museum, operas, the Fringe Festival, Dragon Boat Races, concerts, the oldest Chinatown in Canada, and so much more. So in between your busy, but productive residency training, you can eat well, exercise, keep doing the things and seeing the people who nourish your soul. Victoria has all you could want in a city, with the proximity and accessibility of the great outdoors. And most importantly: live the good life! Victoria is a beautiful place with lots of amazing places to see not too far away.

If you are self-motivated, enjoy the outdoors, and are looking for a strong comprehensive Family Practice program that will prepare you to work independently just about anywhere, then this is likely the program for you.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Hope to see you next year!

Louis-Philippe Plante and Nadia Shehata - Chief Residents, Victoria Site

lpplante@gmail.com
nadia.shehata@gmail.com