FAQs

Getting Started

If you're interested in getting involved in teaching residents, please review the information on the Join the Program webpage.

A great place to start is with your home Residency site faculty. Here are some helpful contacts. If you aren't sure which site is yours, contact residency@familymed.ubc.ca.

Clinical faculty are health professionals that primarily participate in clinical work outside of the University, and who also teach residents or students from UBC. They may also participate in administration and research opportunities. In order to participate, you will need to join the faculty. Please contact us for further information.

This Preceptor Role Description, which was developed with significant preceptor input, describes the various sub-skills of being a preceptor. It is not expected that beginning preceptors will be at the "Fully Performing" or "Mastery" levels described on this resource, only that all preceptors will strive to improve their teaching practices through time.

Clinical Teaching Skills and Tools

Your local site faculty development representative is a great place to start. They can advise you of resources available close to home, as well as exciting opportunities to learn alongside your colleagues.
Our Teaching Resources page has a few handy resources and links to online information.

UBC follows a competency-based assessment model using a system that is designed to provide reliable, valid, and meaningful information to support resident learning. Your Site Faculty are very knowledgeable will be happy to guide you. Learn more about the assessment tools you will be using, like Field Notes and In-training Assessment Reports (ITARs), as well as the competency targets from our Teaching Resources page.

  • One of the keys to making teaching time efficient is to have clear expectations right from the beginning. Taking some time up front to get to know your learner and their expectations and sorting out how to balance them with your clinical context and your own expectations is a huge time-saver in the end. While ‘orientation’ may be the term often used for this, it is more of a conversation than a ‘showing around’ sort of thing.
  • Using helpful tools to give structure to your feedback can create efficiency. Try out the One Minute Preceptor or the SNAPPS tool which can focus your feedback and keep you and the learner on track.
  • Thinking about scheduling in advance can help you plan best for ways to observe your learner doing parts of the clinical encounter. There is no one right way, but there are a few suggestions from your colleagues.
    See our Teaching Resources page for these and other helpful tips, or this article with a few more.

There are several frameworks that are helpful guides to what a resident is expected to learn during their training. At UBC we use the 6 Skills Dimensions, CanMEDS-FM roles, and these Core Learning Outcomes as guides.
If you would like all of the details from the CFPC regarding observable behaviours, they can be found on their website here.
The University of Laval has also developed a set of benchmarks to help preceptors determine whether learners are developing competency in timely fashion during their training.

As soon as you see a problem occurring, arrange a time to speak with the resident in private. Express your concerns, citing your observations whenever possible. Ask them for their perspective and see if you are in agreement that a problem exists. If you are unable to co-design a plan to address the issues, contact your Site Director or other helpful site faculty and colleagues. See the Teaching Resources page for other helpful tips and tools, including the Lacasse Educational Diagnosis Wheel and a Learning Plan Sample.

Nuts and Bolts

All teaching payments are coordinated through your local residency site. The first step is to obtain a clinical faculty appointment. Contact your Site Coordinator for payment details.  If you are unsure to which site you belong, please contact residency@familymed.ubc.ca

There is currently no single program event that includes all residents. If you are interested in connecting with our resident group, please contact residency@familymed.ubc.ca.

Please send details of the practice opportunity to residency@familymed.ubc.ca. We will send the details to our new grads and R2s through our internal mailing list.