Robyn Buna
Southern Medical Program Class of 2015

Current Job Title:
Pediatrics Resident (PGY2), Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary

Tell us what you do at your workplace.
As a pediatrics resident, I rotate through month-long blocks, primarily at the Children’s Hospital, where I take care of patients alongside the pediatric team (which ranges from just me and the attending physician to teams of 10 or more). As a resident, I am responsible for patient care, but also involved in learning, research, and advocacy projects.

What attracted you to a career in medicine?
I was attracted to medicine first as a career path that involved health care and interactions with patients. As I learned more about medicine, I was excited about the prospect of constant learning, a wide variety of career paths, and, mostly importantly, the opportunity to have a positive impact on my patients and their families.

Current volunteer positions, past job positions, appointments and/or awards received.
Current volunteer projects I am involved in as a resident:
-Clerkship Committee – resident representative for medical student Pediatric Rotations
-Resident Education Group – helping to teach medical students
-Mortality Review Committee – board that reviews deaths within the hospital and means to improve our care of patients
-Global Health Committee – addresses global health, refugee, and other global issues
-Christmas Rounds Committee – annual tradition at ACH
-Provincial Knowledge Topic Lead (bronchiolitis and croup) – topic lead for provincial wide development of practice guidelines

Current research project
-Quality Improvement Study on the current management of bronchiolitis in the ED

Today in healthcare it’s important to…
Get immunized and live a healthy and balanced lifestyle

What is the best professional advice you received?
Be kind to your patients/families.

Be involved in areas in which you have a genuine interest – you are more likely to spend meaningful time and create a positive change.

What is your favourite UBC Faculty of Medicine memory?
Celebrating graduation with our SMP class!

What advice to you have for current medical students?
Find something that you are passionate about and get involved in that.

Remember there is something you can learn from every patient encounter (even in areas that may not be totally relevant to your future career path)

Bucket list item?
Attend a NCAA March Madness Basketball game.

Jennifer McCormack, UBC Faculty of Medicine Vancouver Fraser Medical Program and former Trail Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) student, has been recognized with the inaugural Undergraduate Narrative Award for Palliative Medicine by the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians. The national award is designed to stimulate undergraduate medical students to think and reflect creatively about the multifaceted aspects of palliative medicine and caring at the end of life.

McCormack’s winning narrative was based on her own emotional struggle encountering a young woman with a terminal cancer diagnosis. She wrote about her experiences during a fourth-year palliative medicine elective in Winnipeg and her struggle facing the realities of medicine’s limitations.

“There are so many diseases and social determinants of health that we do not have the power change,” say McCormack. “Over the course of my clerkship year, I realized I would need to build my resilience so that I would be able to support my patients through tragedy without feeling burdened and burnt out myself. I sought support from mentors and counsellors, as well as exploring the role of palliative care through clinical electives. I drew on both my patient encounters and the words of wisdom from my mentors when composing my submission.”

Now in her fourth year, McCormack plans to purse a career in rural family medicine with a practice she describes as ‘full service, cradle-to-grave.’ Her top choice for residency is with the Kelowna rural family medicine site allowing her to continue her medical training in the BC Interior.

Frank Takacs and Shaun Bos address volunteer patients at the recent appreciation event.

The Southern Medical Program (SMP) held a Volunteer Appreciation Tea for volunteer patients on October 27^th at the Kelowna Community Theatre. Frank Takacs, Standardized Patient & Volunteer Patient Recruiter and Trainer, Shaun Bos, Standardized Patient Trainer, and Dr. Matt Petrie, former Clinical Skills Co-Director were on-hand to thank those in attendance for contributing to the education of our students.

Clinical skills is a key building block course that allows students to sharpen their communication skills, hone their clinical competencies, and develop their professional identities. Without the support of volunteer patients, our program wouldn’t be able to provide the necessary training experiences that are so critical to their early learning and training. On behalf of the SMP faculty, staff, and students, thank you to all of our volunteer patients for their continued support.

The UBC Faculty of Medicine is implementing a province-wide Teaching Tracking and Payment System (TTPS) for clinical faculty. TTPS will document teaching activity and standardize the payment process across the distributed MD Undergraduate Program.

For Southern Medical Program (SMP) clinical faculty, we would like to highlight a few key considerations regarding the new TTPS:

• Most eligible payments related to the July to September 2016 fiscal period will be processed through the new TTPS.
• As we transition to the new TTP system, some payments may continue to be processed through the existing payment system. As such, you could potentially receive two separate payments and statements if both the TTPS and the existing system are used to process your payments.
• Your current method of receiving payment (e.g. direct deposit) will remain the same regardless of which payment system is used.

The key benefits of TTPS for clinical faculty members include:

• A “one-stop-shop” for clinical faculty teaching and payment information, which is stored in a secure, electronic repository. It will no longer be necessary to submit payment information multiple times across regions or departments.
• Teaching contributions in TTPS can be reviewed easily online to identify and report any discrepancies.
• Detailed TTPS statements are generated quarterly and can serve as official teaching records for reappointment, promotion and recognition purposes.

Accessing TTPS statements requires a Campus-Wide Login (CWL), a single log-in process that provides access to UBC’s online systems and library. To set-up your CWL account:

• Locate your UBC ID and PIN on your Clinical Faculty Appointment (CFA) welcome letter from your department head. Visit the CWL sign-up webpage (https://www.cwl.ubc.ca/SignUp) to set-up your account.
• If you have forgotten your CWL username and/or password, you can request the information at the CWL myAccount webpage (https://www.myaccount.ubc.ca/myAccount/).
• If you are unable to locate your UBC ID and PIN or CWL log-in information, please contact Donna Russo, Southern Medical Program, Faculty Coordinator at donna.russo@ubc.ca or 250-807-9189 for assistance.

For more information, see the TTPS Quick Guide for Clinical Faculty  http://med-fom-faculty.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2014/03/TTPS-Quick-Guide-for-Clinical-Faculty.pdf.

We would like to thank you for your patience as we make the transition to TTPS for all SMP teachers moving forward. We would also like to thank you for your time and commitment in supporting medical education opportunities for our students.

Karan D’Souza (left) and Michael Slater presenting at the Health Sciences Group annual meeting.

Southern Medical Program students Karan D’Souza and Michael Slater recently returned from presenting at the Universitas 21’s (U21) Health Sciences Group annual meeting in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Universitas 21 is a network of research-intensive universities from around the world who work together to foster global citizenship and innovation. The Health Sciences Group focuses on opportunities for collaborative research, exchanging information, and sharing resources amongst multiple universities and health professions.

D’Souza and Slater presented a one-hour, interactive workshop titled Social Media in Health Professional Education: Opportunities and Pitfalls designed for health profession students.

“Our aim is to help students explore the possibilities for personal and professional growth within social media, while being mindful of material that could be perceived as unprofessional by peers, faculty, or the public,” says D’Souza. “Our presentation included a discussion on institutional guidelines, examined opportunities for networking and sharing information, as well as personal reflection on social media attitudes and usage patterns.”

A one-hour group discussion was also held to gather feedback from the diverse group in attendance with the hope of sharing the workshop findings with U21 members to modify and adopt at their respective institutions.

The students acknowledged the meeting as a unique opportunity to hear perspectives from different countries and multiple disciplines of health education and research.

“We valued the informal conversations with both the professionals and the students as it allowed us to learn more about the structure and culture of health professions education around the world,” says Slater. “Delivering our workshop to such an accomplished and diverse group of people was a really positive experience and one that we will be able to draw upon in the future.”

Both D’Souza and Slater would like to acknowledge Dr. Kendall Ho, professor, UBC Department of Emergency Medicine and former director of eHealth Strategy Office for helping make this opportunity possible.

Dr. Allan Jones, Regional Associate Dean, Interior with SMP Kamloops students (L-R) Justin Lambert, Karan D’Souza, Sarah Miller, Rouzbeh Ghadiry-Tavi, and Colby Finney outside the new UBC education space at Royal Inland Hospital.

UBC medical students and residents have an expansive new learning space in the Clinical Services Building (CSB) at Royal Inland Hospital (RIH). The new space was unveiled as part of the official opening of the CSB on Sept 16, 2016 by Health Minister Terry Lake, Dr. Allan Jones, Regional Associate Dean, Interior, Interior Health representatives, and members from the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc.

With approximately 5200 square feet, the new accommodations provide two clinical skills rooms, five videoconference/seminar rooms, five on-call rooms, washroom and shower facilities, a student/resident lounge, and administrative space. Right outside the doors, a new lecture theatre and simulation space to be shared with Interior Health and hospital administration.

Third-year Southern Medical Program (SMP) students will benefit immensely during their training at RIH as they complete clerkship rotations in surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedics, psychiatry, emergency medicine, internal medicine, dermatology, ophthalmology, and anesthesiology.

Residents from the Kamloops family practice residency site, which opened in the summer of 2014, and other visiting UBC residents will also be housed within the new facilities. It’s expected that students and residents will have more chances to collaborate and train with other health professional students at the hospital.

Lastly, the over 140 health professionals in Kamloops engaged with teaching will have dedicated teaching space and more professional development opportunities in-person and via videoconference with education sites across the province.

The development and operation of the new space exemplifies the ongoing partnership with Interior Health to effectively support the expansion of medical undergraduate and postgraduate education in the region.

Dr. Elizabeth McCoid

The Southern Medical Program (SMP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Elizabeth McCoid as Site Director, Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC), Trail effective September 1, 2016.

Dr. McCoid is a family physician and clinical instructor with the UBC Department of Family Medicine. Over the past five years, Dr. McCoid has effectively supported the expansion of medical education opportunities across the Kootenay Boundary region. Beginning with the launch of the Trail ICC Program in 2011, Dr. McCoid has served as a primary family practice preceptor and developed a true passion for the ICC model of medical education. Additionally, she has supported the development and launch of the Kootenay Boundary Family Medicine residency site as both preceptor and faculty development site lead. Dr. McCoid is recognized as an excellent educator and a 2014 graduate of the SMP Master Teacher Certificate Program.

At this time, we would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Cheryl Hume for her tremendous years of service for both the SMP and UBC Department of Family Practice. Dr. Hume was the driving force behind the development and implementation of the Trail ICC Program and the Kootenay Boundary Family Medicine residency site. She has been a tremendous advocate for medical education expansion in the Kootenay Boundary region and her efforts will ultimately support the long-term recruitment and retention of health care professionals for the region. We would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Hume for her esteemed years of service.

The Southern Medical Program (SMP) is pleased to welcome Dr. Brandy Bursey and Dr. Kaylee Milne as the new clinical skills co-directors for SMP.

Dr. Bursey is an emergency medicine physician and hospitalist at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) and clinical instructor with the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Milne is a gastroenterologist and former Chief Resident with the University of Calgary who recently relocated to the Okanagan. Drs. Bursey and Milne have amassed considerable medical education experience as both lecturers and preceptors for medical students and residents. Based at the Clinical Academic Campus at KGH, they will be jointly responsible for the continued development and delivery of the Clinical Skills courses for first and second year SMP students.

At this time, we would also like to recognize Dr. Matt Petrie and Dr. Josh Williams for their extraordinary contributions to the SMP and the Faculty of Medicine. Drs. Petrie and Williams were the SMP’s first clinical skills co-directors joining the program in 2011. They were integral in the development of the Clinical Skills course for SMP students and have contributed greatly to our program’s early development and continued success. We would like to personally thank them for their years of service and look forward to their continued work as part of our esteemed clinical faculty.