Residency Program in Psychiatry

The UBC Psychiatry Residency Program is one of the largest in Canada and is fully accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Our mission is to train psychiatrists in the broad aspects of the bio-psycho-social model of medicine and psychiatry, working with diverse patient populations and in diverse practice settings.

With two tracks, a general and a research-dedicated track, and through integrated programs of clinical placements and academic seminars, our program is designed to achieve the goals of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Our teaching environment values trainee wellness, embraces diversity, and cultivates equity and inclusion.

Program Highlights

Training is offered at five sites (Vancouver, Fraser, Vancouver Island, Prince George, and Southern Interior) with unified standards, training requirements, and curricula.
Supportive faculty and administrative staff, dedicated to resident growth both personally and professionally.

Residents have opportunities to complete rural, outreach or out-of-province/country electives. Within BC, the Rural Education Action Plan (REAP) offers residents rural practice experience.

Subspecialty training is available in Child and Adolescent, Geriatric, and Forensic Psychiatry.
Fellowships are also available in Neuropsychiatry, Reproductive Mental Health, Schizophrenia, Neurostimulation, Addiction Psychiatry/Medicine, and Mood Disorders.

Residents in the General Track are offered a range of scholarly activities. There is a dedicated Research Track for residents wishing to pursue academic careers that maximizes research time within the Royal College’s training guidelines.

All residents have protected time to participate in  academic day sessions.

Application and CaRMS Interview Process

We apply the values equity, diversity, and inclusion in our resident selection process. All applicants are welcome. Both Canadian Medical Graduates (CMGs) and International Medical Graduates (IMGs) must submit their applications through the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) website. Separate applications must be submitted for the Research Track and for the Prince George, Vancouver Island, and Southern Interior Sites, as each ranks candidates separately. IMG applicants must also complete the Clinical Assessment Program (CAP).

Full details of each track program, including information about the curriculum and the distributed sites, are available in the 2024 CaRMS information package.

Starting 2024 CaRMS match cycle, the Government of British Columbia has confirmed the addition of the Competitive stream to the first iteration of the R-1 match. This new stream is open to both CMG and IMG applicants who meet the eligibility criteria.

2024 CaRMS Interview Dates

Regardless of the number of streams applied, all shortlisted candidates will receive and complete all interviews on the same day. The 2024 CaRMS interview dates are as follows:

  • January 17, 2024
  • January 23, 2024
  • January 24, 2024

Interview Process

All interviews are conducted virtually via Zoom. The UBC Psychiatry Education Office will notify all applicants of their interview status through CaRMS Online. Those who are short-listed for a virtual interview will be contacted by e-mail. Applicants must respond within three business days in order to secure an interview spot. Telephone interviews are not an option unless there is a connection issue during the virtual interview. Interviews will take place over a full day, and includes:

  • Virtual Meet and Greet with Faculty and Resident Representatives from different subspecialties and representatives from the training site.
  • Program orientation with our Program Director and Resident Representatives.
  • 10-minute Program Director and Associate Program Director Interview.
  • 10-15-minute Mini Interview with members of the Selections Committee to assess communication, organization, collaboration, and professionalism skills.
  • 10-15-minute Panel Interview with members of the Selections Committee.

Additional interviews are included for:

  • Applicants to the Southern Interior and Prince George Sites: 15-minute interviews with the Associate Program Directors.
  • Applicants to the Research Track:  30-minute Interview with the Research Track Associate Program Director and a 45-minute panel interview with the Research Track Committee.
  • IMG: 20-minute interview with the IMG Associate Program Director.

CaRMS FAQs

I applied to multiple UBC psychiatry tracks. Will I be interviewed on the same day or over the course of a few days?

All shortlisted candidates who applied multiple streams/tracks will compete all their interviews on the same day.

Where can I find detailed information about the training sites/tracks?

Full details of the general and research track programs including information about the five training sites are available in the 2024 CaRMS information package.

Do I need to submit a targeted letter for each track/site I apply to?

Candidates applying to the Vancouver Island, Prince George, and Southern Interior sites are encouraged to write different targeted personal letter. Applicants can use the same letter if applying to the Vancouver or Fraser tracks. The targeted letters help the distributed program(s) understand applicants’ motivation in making their choice.   

Is a custom CV required for the CaRMS application?

No. The CaRMS application forms include fields for all necessary information but a resume with the key points of your CV is encouraged.

Can I submit more than the CaRMS specified reference letters?

No. If you do, the Selection Committee will only review the first three.

I am currently in the process of completing a dual degree (MD/MSc). Do I need to upload a copy of the MSc transcript?

Yes. You must upload a copy with the CaRMS application; it will be reviewed by the Selection Committee.

Do you give preference to UBC graduates during the selection process?  

No. Every applicant will be scored in a standardized fashion.

After speaking with residents and faculty during the interview day, I might decide to apply to other tracks. Is this possible? What is the deadline for this?

Yes. Candidates can apply to other UBC training sites (except for the Prince George, Interior, and Research track) after the interview date, and up to at least 1 to 1.5 weeks before the ranking submission deadline.

Re-Entry Positions

The UBC Department of Psychiatry will be funded yearly for 1 Re-entry Residency Position in Psychiatry in the Interior going forward.

This re-entry residency position comes with a 3-year Return of Service (ROS) contract with the Ministry of Health. This year, the ROS will be completed in the Interior Health Authority in British Columbia.

The application deadline for 2024/2025 is January 1st, 2024. Please review the full posting for this position for additional information regarding eligibility requirements and the application process.

For full details on the ROS commitment, please see the re-entry ROS contract templates and policy available on the Ministry of Health’s Re-entry webpage. Training for the Interior ROS position will occur in the Interior Psychiatry PGE Track for PGY2 and 3 with years 4 and 5 being flexible for training opportunities anywhere in the province, in Canada and even abroad if approved.

Residency Training Curriculum

Competence By Design (CBD) is the new model of Competency-Based Medical Education developed by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada as detailed in the CBD Guide for Residents. The focus of CBD is the attainment of measurable competencies through the completion of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs). The Royal College provides detailed EPA guides, with general information and specific information pertaining to Psychiatry, to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, to Forensic Psychiatry and to Geriatric Psychiatry. Residents must demonstrate graduated EPA competence in order to progress through their stages of training. Residency is divided into four stages, each with its own designated number of required EPAs:

Psychiatry residency EPAs

Transition to Discipline (PGY1; 2EPAs): Rotations differ between the training sites, but all will include one block of: Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Neurology, Emergency Medicine, Addictions, Emergency Psychiatry, Elective; two blocks of Selectives and 2 additional blocks of Psychiatry.

Foundations of Discipline (PGY1, PGY2; 5EPAs): Medical and Psychiatry rotations in PGY1; in PGY2 training consists of twelve months of Adult Psychiatry in an inpatient and an outpatient setting.

Core of Discipline (PGY 3, PGY4; 10 EPAs): Child (6 months) and Geriatric Psychiatry (6 months) in PGY3; in PGY4 residents are introduced to specialty areas in Psychiatry by rotating through  Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, Emergency Psychiatry, Chronic Care Psychiatry and 1 elective.  Training can occur in any site across the province if capacity and availability allows, or out of province under special circumstances. Spring of PGY4 – Royal College Examination

Transition to Practice (PGY5; 3 EPAs): During the PGY5 year, residents assumes more leadership in the education and supervision of junior colleagues while consolidating and further developing their career interests through electives and selectives, including research.

Selectives are limited to: Psychiatric Research; Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; Geriatric Psychiatry; Forensic Psychiatry; Psychosomatic Medicine; Psychotherapies; Addictions; Developmental Disabilities; and Psychiatry In Rural Locations.

Electives should involve any aspect of training relevant to contemporary psychiatric practice, including research approved by the residency training committee. Electives may consist of an approved rotation in internal medicine, neurology or other branch of medicine relevant to psychiatry as shown in the Postgraduate Psychiatry Elective Catalogue.

Resident Research Elective Request Form: This structured elective request form serves to explicitly define the roles and activities of both resident and supervisor(s) and the “deliverables” including presentation and publication of results, and serve as a “contract” so that everyone is clear about what to expect and so we can evaluate whether objectives have been met.

When you have completed the form, please send an email to the Associate Director of Research and Scholarly Activity Dr. Erin Michalak (erin.michalak@ubc.ca) to let her know.

Psychotherapy

The UBC Psychotherapy Program is comprehensive, longitudinal, and provides training, supervision and experiences in all modalities required by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Training is delivered through didactic seminars and individual case supervision. Didactic seminars occur during the Academic Day in PGY 2 and PGY3and are standardized across all our training sites. For clinical psychotherapy training, residents have 2 hours of protected time per week in PGY2 and 4 hours of protected time per week in PGY3 and PGY4.

Didactic psychotherapy training includes: (1) Primer courses in supportive, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), psychodynamic, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and motivational interviewing; (2) Foundations of Psychotherapy course; (3) Parent Infant Psychotherapy course; (4) Family and Marital Therapy course; (5) Long-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy course; (6) Techniques and Applications of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy course; (7) Group Psychotherapy course; (8) Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy course; (9) Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) course; (10) Psychotherapy Review seminar for Royal College Exam in Psychiatry; (11) Transition to Practice topics

Clinical psychotherapy training includes: (1) Supportive psychotherapy, integrated with adult psychiatry core rotation activities; (2) Two cases of supervised individual CBT; (3) six months of  group therapy experience; (4) A minimum of 8 sessions of family therapy, integrated with child and adolescent psychiatry rotation activities; (5) A two-year long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy case with weekly individual supervision; (6) An IPT case with group supervision

The program also offers opportunities for residents to learn other approaches (e.g., mindfulness-based interventions, DBT, motivational interviewing, couples therapy), as well as opportunities for psychotherapy research electives. Inquiries should be directed to the Associate Program Co-Directors for Psychotherapy Training: Dr. Michelle van den Engh or Dr. Jaeyun Yoo.

Academic Day Curriculum

The Academic Day curriculum is an integrated series of seminars covering all aspects of Psychiatry, and all residents are excused from clinical responsibilities to attend. Flex time is built into the Academic Day schedules, which varies per year:

PGY1: Residents start off the year in July by attending a 1-week academic Bootcamp. Academic sessions will focus on foundational psychotherapy skills and primer courses on different modalities of treatment.

PGY2, PGY3: A full Academic Day is scheduled every Thursday, either in-person or virtually via Zoom. Two Mock OSCEs per year (Fall and Spring) also take place during this period

PGY4: For most of the year, the Academic Day provides protected preparation time for the Royal College Examination, interspersed with review courses. Five Mock OSCEs are also held for exam practice.

PGY5: Curriculum shifts to more enhanced practice and subspecialty topics.

Scholarly Activities in the General Track

MANDATORY SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY PROJECT

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has mandated that all residency programs must include a scholarly activity project, in recognition that active participation in scholarly activities is a necessary component of preparing future psychiatrists to fulfill their role as scholars and educators upon graduation. Scholarly activity is defined as creative work that is peer reviewed and publicly disseminated. Scholarly activity includes the discovery of new knowledge, the development of new technologies or methods, and the integration of knowledge leading to new understanding

Residents in the general track are mandated to complete a scholarly activity project before the end of the PGY5 year.  Residents can fulfill this requirement by completing a research project, a systematic review of the literature, a quality improvement project, or a scholarly educational project. Scholarly activity for all four categories requires a systematic approach to formulating the question, acquiring the relevant information/data, critically analyzing/appraising the information, and disseminating the results.

SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE

The Scholarly Activities Committee led by Dr. Erin Michalak oversees project approvals (initial proposal and final report) and monitors progress.

Important dates

The quarterly 2024 meetings for the department’s Research and Scholarly Activity Committee meetings have now been confirmed for: February 8th, April 25th, July 25th and November 7th. Please note that both abstracts and final reports need to be submitted at least one week prior to the meetings.

The links to the Qualtrics forms for both abstract and final report submissions can be found on this page://psychiatry.ubc.ca/education/residency-and-subspecialty-training-in-psychiatry/residency-program-in-psychiatry/

Elective requests can be made to Dr. Erin Michalak via this form: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b47gBgCE2cfz7ZH  

Please note if you’re submitting a request for an elective that you also need to email Dr. Erin Michalak at erin.michalak@ubc.ca to let her know that you’ve done so.

SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT

Using the guidance for abstract submission and examples of abstracts for scholarly activity, residents must prepare an abstract, then submit it using the submission form below:

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM

SUBMITTING A FINAL REPORT

Upon completion of the project, residents must prepare their final report using these guidelines, then submit it using the submission form below:

FINAL REPORT SUBMISSION FORM

FURTHER INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE

Scholarly Activity Introduction and Guidance (ppt)

Scholarly Activity Project Policy (pdf)

Scholarly Activity Project Objectives (pdf)

Scholarly Activity Project Checklist (doc)

How to conduct a systematic review for a Scholarly Activity project (pdf)

Online Publication & Presentation Record Form | July 2, 2022 – June 30, 2023

Online Publication & Presentation Record Form | July 2, 2023 – June 30, 2024

Research Track

The Research Track has separate requirements during application and selection as outlined in the section on Information for Prospective Applicants to the Residency Program.

Every year, two residents with prior research experience and plans to become clinician scientists are accepted into the Research Track where they receive specific mentorship, protected research time, and funding to support their research career development. Research Track residents have additional time away from their clinical activities dedicated to research from 1 day per week in PGY2-PGY4 to up to 4 days per week in PGY5. Dr. William Panenka is the Associate Director of the Research Track. He provides mentorship and overall oversight of the clinical and research training of the Research Track residents. Research Track residents are expected to develop their research plans under the supervision of a Scientific Supervisor selected from the academic faculty of the Department. Residents work together with the Program Director and the Scientific Supervisors to identify their goals and needs using a dedicated Research Plan template.

The range of research activities offered is very wide from epidemiology to clinical trials, psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, neuromodulation, genetics/genomics, and preclinical models of brain processes. Information about our research programs and lab can be found at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre of Brain Health, our Research Programs and Labs, and the Brain, Behaviour and Development Program at BC Children’s Hospital.

The Research Support Hub offers further information about research opportunities, research support, and conduct.

Resident Testimonials

Interested in finding out what our residents think about the program? View our Resident Testimonials.

Program Inquiries

Program Inquiries

Inquiries about the General Program can be directed to:

Current residents may send general inquiries to: ubc.psych.residents@gmail.com

Inquiries pertaining to a specific Residency Track can be directed to: