Students attend a surgical orientation at Kelowna General Hospital this past June.
Students from the Southern Medical Program’s (SMP) inaugural class begin the clinical phase of their medical education this September. The first 32 medical undergraduates – who entered the program in September 2011 – will spend the next year learning alongside physicians and other health professionals in BC Interior hospitals.
The majority of SMP students will train at either Kelowna General Hospital or Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Each student rotates through ten different specialties including medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, emergency medicine, orthopedics, anesthesiology, dermatology, and ophthalmology. A portion of SMP students will participate in UBC’s integrated community clerkship program spending the next year training in smaller, community-based programs in Vernon, Chilliwack, Terrace, and Fort St. John.
“It’s an exciting time for both our program and our students,” says Dr. Allan Jones, Regional Associate Dean, Interior. “The students are eager to gain hands-on clinical experience and start working more in-depth with patients. Our faculty and staff are enthusiastic to assist with their learning and help them discover their future career paths.”
With the recent addition of the SMP’s third cohort, 96 new medical undergraduates will complete the bulk of their medical education and clinical training in Interior BC communities. More than 700 physicians across the region are now involved in teaching with the UBC Faculty of Medicine.