Medical student Maksim Parfyonov, second from right, leads the weekly art class with Connect residents Amadee Hollowink, Glen O’Connor, and Matthew McKay.

New idea tackles depression and social isolation while creating useable art work

Second-year medical student Maksim Parfyonov has always had a keen interest in neuroscience. And art. When he was offered the chance to work with CONNECT as part of his Southern Medical Program studies at UBC’s Okanagan campus, it seemed like the perfect fit.

Parfyonov began his work with CONNECT, a residential rehabilitation program for people with acquired brain injury, in September as part of the MD curriculum’s Doctor, Patient, and Society course.

The invaluable learning opportunity has turned into weekly art lessons for CONNECT residents that will culminate in a public art show in Lake Country next month.

“I visited a weekly support group run by a psychologist, where I discovered that many of the residents struggle with depression,” says Parfyonov. “Social isolation is one of the contributing factors, as residents rarely interact with each other outside of meal times.”

For the first few weeks, the young student focused primarily on getting to know the residents and staff at CONNECT. Through his weekly visits, he enjoyed spending time with the residents and was able to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges often faced during their recovery.

Parfyonov established a weekly art workshop where residents could work on their creative projects in a club-like, social atmosphere. Parfyonov loved art, taking lessons throughout high school. However, he had to set aside his artistic passion during his medical studies. The weekly art workshops at CONNECT seemed liked a natural fit for him to get back into painting and at the same time assist the residents with their recovery.

With the added bonus of having a lot more art on the walls in the building, CONNECT occupational therapist and independence coach Brian Hall says he noticed a groundswell of excitement prior to the art classes. The class size has grown in numbers each week, and some residents, those he had no idea had an interest or aptitude in art, are involved in the sessions.

“Along with a few key people becoming very engaged, some mutual respect has been gained by residents seeing other residents create meaningful art,” says Hall, appreciating that Parfyonov brings the art classes to the residents. “I think people like to have the opportunity to be creatively engaged; we take people to pottery but that isn’t always the best option for those who struggle with over stimulating environments or the logistics of travelling.”

CONNECT operates specialized residential environments for people living with brain injury. Whether long-term or transitional, all programs address the physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural needs of the residents. The Lake Country condominium contains six homes, and each has seven private bedrooms, a kitchen, dining and living rooms.

Artwork created during the weekly workshops with Parfyonov will be showcased as an art exhibition from May 4 to 8 at the Lake Country Art Gallery’s Art House, 10356A Bottom Wood Lake Rd. A “meet the artists” event with refreshments will be held on May 4 at 2 p.m. The exhibition is supported by the Rachael Bagnall Arts in Medicine grant.

The goal of the exhibition says Hall is to help the community better understand people living with brain injuries.

“I hope the residents will feel a sense of pride from seeing their work on display,” says Parfyonov, “and they acknowledge their accomplishments in the face of adversity.”

Interior Health Board Chair Erwin Malzer, left, met with Dr. Allan Jones and the first class of graduating students from UBC’s Southern Medical Program, at a special event at Kelowna General Hospital Monday.

The first medical students to be fully educated and trained in the B.C. Interior are set to graduate from the University of British Columbia this spring.

UBC Okanagan welcomed the inaugural class of the Southern Medical Program in September 2011. Now, as part of the largest medical class in UBC history, these new doctors are preparing to enter residency training in family medicine or various specialties for the next two to five years.

“The past four years have been a great journey for both our students and our program,” says Dr. Allan Jones, Regional Associate Dean, Interior. “We are incredibly proud of these students who pioneered this program, and proud of the many players — instructors, staff, nurses and many others — who, by enabling their success, are supporting the health care needs of Interior communities.”

Students in the Southern Medical Program did most of their academic work — lectures, labs and small-group workshops — at UBC Okanagan, and received their clinical training at various hospitals and clinics throughout the Interior.

More than half of the SMP’s graduates will pursue training in primary care — family medicine, internal medicine or pediatrics. One of them, Alexandra Bond, who grew up in Surrey, will head to Vancouver to begin a five-year residency in internal medicine at UBC.

“I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to complete my medical education with the Southern Medical Program’s inaugural class,” says Bond. “The SMP has a supportive learning environment that is cultivated by a team of dedicated administrative staff, talented physicians, an enthusiastic medical community, and incredible classmates. This has made for a truly exceptional experience.”

“On behalf of the Interior Health board as well as our physicians and staff, congratulations to the Southern Medical Program’s first graduating class,” says Interior Health Board Chair Erwin Malzer. “We are proud to play an important role in the future of tomorrow’s doctors, and we look forward to building upon our successful partnership with UBC.”

Bolstered by the Southern Medical Program, UBC will be graduating 292 MD students — its largest class ever — on May 20 at UBC’s Vancouver campus. UBC’s medical education program is now the fifth-largest in North America.

The UBC Faculty of Medicine Southern Medical Program is hosting an evening information session for local high school students. Learn about the admission requirements, application process, and how the program is training the next generation of physicians for our province.

The event will be held on Tuesday, May 5th from 6:00 to 7:00 pm in the Reichwald Health Sciences Centre at UBC Okanagan.

Presenters to include Dr. Bruce Fleming, Associate Dean, MD Admissions, current Southern Medical Program students, and the UBC Okanagan Recruitment and Advising Office.

To register, first create student profile with UBC Okanagan (https://account.you.ubc.ca/ubc/myEvents.do) and then select event. Parents are welcome.

For more info, contact Warren Brock, Communications Manager, Southern Medical Program at warren.brock@ubc.ca or 250.807.8601. For more info about the Southern Medical Program, visit www.smp.med.ubc.ca.

By Liz Bevan – Trail Daily Times

Recruiting a doctor to set up a practice in a rural area is an issue the province has been dealing with for a long time, but the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Southern Medical Program may have a solution.

In Trail, Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH) is the site for the Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) where students can get a glimpse of small town medicine before they graduate and become practicing physicians.

When Rossland native and UBC medical student, Nichole Gill, was given the opportunity to study in the Kootenays, she jumped at the chance to come home.

Once her first two years of medical school were done, Gill was required to apply for a third-year clerkship at a hospital in the province. Through the ICC program, studying at KBRH was an option and she was picked for one of four spots in the 2014-2015 program.

“You had to apply to the program and then you rank your preference on where you wanted to go,” she said. “Trail was my first choice, and I was was really excited at being able to come back here.”

Having grown up in Rossland, Gill already knew about the long list of features the area has to offer, but had yet to experience medical education near her home community.

“I grew up knowing that I loved the area, especially all of the recreational activities, like skiing and hiking,” she said. “I love the community feel in a smaller town, so for me, coming back here this year, was all about learning what it was like to practice medicine in a small town and get a real look at what it would be like to do that in the future.”

Small-town medical training hasn’t been around the Kootenays forever. The program at KBRH, and five other hospitals across the province, was introduced in 2011, and has had a successful run for the last four years. Gill is an example of the program working the way it was planned.

“I have had such a great experience here that I can definitely see myself coming back here, or somewhere like it,” she said.

Part of what makes the rural medical education program so successful, at least from Gill’s perspective, is the personalized experience she gets on a day-to-day basis.

“There are only four of us, as opposed to various medical schools that have tons of students in various stages of medical training,” she said. “Because there are so few of us, we get to have the run of hospital. We get to do a lot of things that you might not get to do in a bigger hospital, just because they are busier and students aren’t necessarily always at the front of the line for who gets to do a procedure or who gets to go first. It is personalized.”

Dr. Cheryl Hume, ICC program director at KBRH, says the quality of education the students receive through the program is second-to-none.

“There is a lot of one-on-one mentorship with the students,” she said. “They get a lot of direct experience and they get to really know their teachers and their teachers can really help them learn and assess how they are learning.”

Working in a smaller community also provides Gill and the other students with the environment to get to know the patients she is treating and seeing day-to-day.

“There is a lot of opportunity to work with patients one-on-one,” she said. “That is the integrated part. We are here, interacting and getting to know people. We only have one half-day a week in a classroom environment, and the rest of the week, it is clinical learning time. It is definitely exciting to be out of the classroom.”

Dr. Hume sees the student-patient relationship as a huge plus within the ICC program.

“The most important thing, is that the students gets to see patients over the course of the year,” she said.  “They really understand the patient care journey and how care can progress or how health and wellness progress instead of going in and seeing a patient once and trying to learn about a disease that way. There is that continuity.”

With the ICC program, Gill and her fellow third-year students, are in the process of taking different medical specialities for a test-drive in everything from surgery to family practice. Soon, she is going to have to pick a specialty to focus on, dictating the rest of her education and future career.

“We do a few weeks at a time in each specialty, then we rotate through them later in the year,” she said, adding that she is going to have a hard time coming up with a future specialty. “I liked aspects of all of my rotations, which is making it very difficult to decide what I am going to do next.”

One of the options Gill has for her fourth year of medical training is to apply for the brand-new UBC Rural Residency Program, launching this summer. The new program provides medical students with the opportunity to continue their studies in a small town setting, and hopes to attract doctors to small town life.

Dr. Hume says the new rural residency program is the next logical step for medical students already learning in a rural environment.

“We are taking students to the next level with this two-year training program we have built on top of what we have already done (with the ICC),” she said, adding that the program will be taking in its first four students this July. “This is where we get young future physicians exposed to rural medical practice. Especially if they were already here for a year in the ICC program, they would be here for two years after that in a rural environment.

“The chances of them returning to a rural environment to practice is much, much better. It will go a long way to fixing our physician recruitment concerns. It is all part of the big picture.”

For more information on the ICC or the Rural Residency Program, visit www.mdprogram.med.ubc.ca

Congratulations to Dr. Cheryl Holmes for her recent acknowledgment for the Canadian Association for Medical Education (CAME) Certificate of Merit Award 2015. Dr. Holmes joined the Southern Medical Program (SMP) in 2009 as Site Lead, Undergraduate Education, Kelowna. Over the past five years, her primary responsibilities have been to develop, sustain, and continuously improve the clinical clerkship experience for our students and faculty at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH). Dr. Holmes is a highly respected teacher and instructs students and residents in the Critical Care Unit at KGH. Dr. Holmes’ passion for medical education and assessment motivated her to pursue a Masters in Health Professions Education from University of Illinois, Chicago.  Her thesis entitled Harnessing the Hidden Curriculum in Clinical Clerkship: A Four-Step Reflective Competency Approach was selected by the Masters program for the ‘Best Thesis’ award and has also been published in a peer reviewed journal.

“It is such a pleasure to be in the company of educators and scholars and an exciting time to be involved in medical education in the UBC Faculty of Medicine,” said Dr. Holmes. “The curriculum renewal process provides real opportunity to be involved and make a positive impact on preparing the next generation of physicians for a  future that we can’t even envision.”

Dr. Trent Smith is the new Site Co‐Leader, Undergraduate Education, Royal Inland Hospital (RIH). Dr. Smith is a Kamloops‐based Pediatrician and Clinical Assistant Professor with the UBC Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Smith completed his medical degree at the University of Alberta followed by a pediatrics residency with the UBC Faculty of Medicine. In 2002, Dr. Smith began his practice in Kamloops and has since served in numerous educational leadership positions at RIH over the past thirteen years. Dr. Smith is a member of the BC Pediatric Society, Canadian Pediatric Society, and past Director of the Kamloops Action for Health Communities Society.

Dr. Smith acted as the Education Coordinator for the Department of Pediatrics soon after joining the staff at RIH.  Under Dr. Smith’s stewardship, the department evolved from elective training for residents to a core rotation site for R2 pediatric residents.  In 2009, he assumed the role of Discipline Specific Site Leader (DSSL) for the Department of Pediatrics and was integral in piloting and developing the SMP’s Year 3 traditional clerkship program based at RIH.  Most recently, Dr. Smith was instrumental in the design and implementation of the pediatric rotation for the new Kamloops Family Medicine residency program which accepted its first residents last July. Dr. Smith has been acknowledged for his work both as a physician and medical educator including the UBC Community Pediatrician of the Year, UBC Community Based Pediatrician Award, and the Canadian Association of Medical Education’s 2014 Certificate of Merit Award.

Considering future career options can be a daunting task for medical students, especially those who have yet to begin their clerkship training. There is also increased pressure to make career decisions early into their third-year clerkship to help best prepare for their future residency application.  This past month, the SMP Office of Student Affairs hosted an inaugural ‘Careers Night’ event to offer students an opportunity to learn more about the different careers in medicine.

The event featured eleven physicians representing family medicine and numerous specialties. First, a panel discussion allotted time for each physician to speak about their type of practice and lifestyle. Second, a career ‘speed dating’ activity allowed students to choose several potential career options and meet with physicians during small group discussions. The response from students was exceedingly positive and they recommended the event be hosted annually. A special thanks to Dr. Connie Hull, Carri Folk, Lisa Roe and SMP students Hannah Duyvewaardt, Olivia Guerra, and Aaron Sobkowicz in helping organize this year’s event.

Dr. Melanie Reed has been appointed the new Southern Medical Program (SMP) Assistant Dean, Student Affairs effective June 1, 2015 to June 30, 2018.

Dr. Reed is a Clinical Associate Professor with the Department of Surgery at UBC and a Radiation Oncologist at the Cancer Centre for the Southern Interior in Kelowna. She has a strong interest in undergraduate education and she has been a dedicated supporter of the SMP since it’s opening. She has been involved in many facets of the program including admissions, clinical skills teaching, mentorship and the third year surgical clerkship. She is also involved in resident teaching, is a member of the BCCA Radiation Oncology residency training committee, and a Royal College examiner. In her spare time, Dr. Reed enjoys spending time with her husband, two teenage daughters and three dogs on their hobby farm in Southeast Kelowna.

Dr. Reed will work alongside Dr. Connie Hull who will continue in her role until August 1, 2015. Dr. Hull has been the Assistant Dean, Student Affairs for the SMP since its inception and developed an exceptional and innovative Student Affairs Office for the SMP. Welcome to Dr. Reed and special thanks to Dr. Hull for her outstanding commitment to our students and our program.

Erin Menzies, Southern Medical Program Librarian was recently named the sole Canadian recipient of the 2015 EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant. As a result of this funding, Erin will be able to attend the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting being held in Austin, TX in May 2015, where she’ll present her original research exploring the topic of information services to distributed medical students.

For the past year, Erin has worked with the SMP teaching informatics skills to students, supporting program-wide research initiatives, and curriculum support and consultation. She relocated to Kelowna from Toronto, where she spent several years in academic medicine and clinical information services.