Welcome Message
Hello! Thanks for considering Chilliwack for your Year 3 Integrated Clerkship. I am a family physician in a community where medical care is primarily delivered by family physicians, which means that I and many of the family docs in town practice everything from obstetrics to palliative care. I have been site director in Chilliwack since 2011 and it has been a rich and rewarding experience.
As site director, my role is to primarily to coordinate your education while you are part of the Chilliwack community. This means I am your line of communication to UBC. I have the honor of welcoming each new group of students to Chilliwack. I deliver an overview of your evaluations, coordinate your teaching, touch base with you weekly at the site director meeting and every 6 weeks one on one. Personally, I spend my time in medicine working in my clinic, providing hospital care, catching babies and caring for the elderly. I am also the research director for the UBC Family Medicine residency program in Chilliwack. Away from medicine, I spend time with my wife and three little boys. In the community, I can be found playing community basketball, hiking or camping in the beautiful country side or wrenching on a vintage vehicle. I also cook, clean and do windows! I look forward to meeting you and answering any questions you might have about our Chilliwack Integrated Clerkship program.
Dr. Scott Bakker, MD CCFP
Site Director
I have lived in Chilliwackfor the past 18 years. Most of that time I spent working in local doctor’s offices for general practice and an orthopaedic surgeon. I began working as program administrator for the Chilliwack ICC program in September 2010. Because of the years I have worked in Chilliwack’s medical community, I know the majority of the preceptors that teach in our program, making my job easier. I have strong family ties to Chilliwack, including my 2 year old granddaughter whom I kidnap on a regular basis. I tend to get rather attached to each new batch of students that come through the Chilliwack ICC and each year they have been known to call me their Chilliwack mom….. Watching each group of students grow and learn throughout the year makes my job very rewarding and I enjoy it very much. In my spare time I am a silversmith and I also stage houses and paint.
Trudy Sargent
Program Administrator
General Program Overview
We require applicants to our program to be highly motivated, flexible and self directed. It is also necessary to be able to work as a functioning member of a very dynamic team. Chilliwack offers full service care in a 120 bed hospital with specialty services including obstetrics, general, orthopedic and urologic surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry and a very active emergency room. Family physicians serve as the primary care givers for most of the hospital. Students in Chilliwack are attached to a family medicine preceptor whom they work with one day per week. Many of the family preceptors have special interests such as geriatric medicine, addiction medicine and obstetrical care in a large, busy obstetrical care group. Students are encouraged to develop their own roster of patients for which they take responsibility and assume many aspects of care. Our preceptors and medical staff have a long history of medical teaching, from nursing students to medical students and family medicine residents.
Our integrated clerkship has been in place since 2004, making us the longest running integrated clerkship in Canada. We have many enthusiastic teachers in the hospital and surrounding community, and opportunities for learning are available from nursing staff, paramedics, occupational and physiotherapists and clinical counselors. Student scheduling operates on a ‘mini block’ rotation, meaning students spend two or three weeks at a time with specialty preceptors.
Depending on the rotation, students may return to a given rotation two or three times – for instance, there are seven weeks in Internal Medicine spread over two 2 week rotations and one 3 week rotation. A week consists of three days with a specialty preceptor, one day with a family preceptor, academic half days and one flex day where students can pursue their own interests in medicine.
Specialty sites include Chilliwack and Abbotsford for pediatric inpatient, psychiatry and some internal medicine rotations. We also have a family medicine residency program of eight residents per year. Students can work with residents in each department and on overnight call in the hospital. This is generally considered to be a fantastic learning opportunity by Chilliwack students, as overnight call is a great time for one on one learning with residents. As part of our training, medical students and residents learn together how to best use each others’ skills and how to learn from each other in a supportive and mutually beneficial environment.
Special interest rotations are available in a wide variety of specialties. Some of these include Urology in Chilliwack General Hospital, Oncology through the nearby BC Cancer Agency in Chilliwack, Dermatology with a visiting dermatologist and Radiology. Rotations are limited to your imagination and a willing preceptor! Academic half days consist of a 45 minute meeting with the site director and presentations on medical topics presented by the students of the program. Additionally, local specialty and family medicine preceptors deliver seminars ranging from didactic to interactive on a variety of topics. Medicol objectives guide the majority of topics selected for preceptor teaching, however there is room for topics of interest to Chilliwack students as well.
Community Profile
Chilliwack is considered a rural community, although it is only 90 minutes East of Vancouver with 79,000 people in the eastern portion of the Fraser Valley, between Chilliwack and Hope. It boasts an amazing country side with great hiking and camping opportunities, including Cultus Lake, Harrison Hot Springs and Chilliwack Lake parks. We have many affordable restaurants and housing near the hospital is relatively cheap. In your spare time, you can cheer on the Chilliwack Chiefs hockey team at the Prospera Centre or enjoy a show at the new theatre or arts & cultural centre!
For further information, please contact:
Dr. Scott Bakker
ICC Site Director, Chilliwack
scottbakker@gmail.com
Trudy Sargent
ICC Program Assistant, Chilliwack
trudy.sargent@fraserhealth.ca