Attend Orientation Days

Overview

New residents attend several orientation days and yet it’s still all so confusing! In this section, we summarize the different orientation sessions and give you important information that you’ll need during these days. Please note that you don’t need to look through this section until a few days before your first day of orientation.

What to expect?

• You’ll meet your co-residents across the province and some important faculty

• You’ll also hear from several organizations. We’ve summarized them all here for you

• While attending in-person events, you will want to connect to the wifi which you can do with your CWL account! We’ll explain below.

• You’ll want to hold on to your receipts to get reimbursed for expenses. We explain who processes them and how to submit them here.

Orientation Sessions: All Programs

Here is a summary of the orientation days required for UBC residents across all programs.

# of Days	Name	Hosted by	Audience	In-Person vs Virtual
1 day	HEABC Occupational Health & Safety Orientation	HEABC OHS	All new residents	Virtual
1 day	RDBC Orientation	RDBC	All new residents	Hybrid You get free swag if you go in-person
7 days	UBC IMG Orientation	UBC IMG Orientation Team	All new IMGs	Week 1: virtual Week 2: in-person
1/2 day	UBC PGME Orientation	UBC PGME Orientation Team	All new residents	Hybrid

Insider Tip

Save your travel/parking receipts and ask your site coordinator / program administrator if you are able to request reimbursement for these expenses and how to submit them.
Throughout residency, it’s a good idea to have a way of keeping track of your expenses. See Do I get reimbursed for some of my expenses? for tips.

Orientation Sessions: Program Specific

On top of the orientation sessions listed above, you will also need to attend the orientation sessions for your specific program / site.

For example, Family Medicine residents will also need to attend the following orientation sessions:

# of Days	Name	Hosted by	Audience	In-Person vs Virtual
1 day	Clinical Skills Day	UBC PGME FM	All new IMG FP residents	In-person
1 day	Family Practice Program Orientation	UBC PGME FM	All new FP residents (IMGs and CMGs)	Virtual

Sign up for some organizations

You will hear about all the different organizations during orientation. Here’s a summary of them, and what they do for you.

Organization	What do they do?	Is it mandatory?	Is there a fee?
RDBC	Union for all medical residents in UBC Negotiate our salary and benefits Process our call stipends Host free events Provide support for residents	Yes	Yes, automatically comes out of our paycheck
CPSBC	Regulatory college for all physicians in BC	Yes	Yes, you paid this when you registered
CMPA	Mutual medical defence organization that protects doctors from liability and patients from malpractice	Yes	Yes, but it gets reimbursed automatically into your paycheck
Divisions of Family Practice	Community group of family practitioners and health care partners in the local community. Ex. Divisions Vancouver, Divisions Richmond, Divisions North Shore, etc. Provides free UptoDate	No but highly recommended for FP residents	No
CMA	National association for Canadian doctors. They advocate for physicians, and provide various resources and support to their members.	No	No

Connect to Eduroam WiFi

Now that you have your UBC CWL, you have access to the eduroam wifi!

To connect, find the eduroam wifi network and connect using the following settings:

Username: Your_CWL_ID@ubc.ca

Password: Your_CWL_Password

Insider Tip

The eduroam wifi network is available at most teaching hospitals and usually provides the fastest connection available (better than the guest wifi or employee wifi networks). It also doesn't have any sites blocked!

Get reimbursed for expenses during orientation

You will most likely rack up a few expenses that you may be able to get reimbursed. Examples include parking, mileage, and accommodation (for those whose home site is not in the Greater Vancouver Area). The tricky thing is keeping your expenses and receipts organized because they need to be sent to different people.

Here’s an example for an IMG Family Medicine resident:

Orientation	Processed by
RDBC Orientation	RDBC Website Check your email from them and look for the link! You will need to fill out a form online and attach receipts
IMGO	UBC IMGO Check your email from IMGO for full details You will eventually send a form and receipts to imgbc.postgrad@ubc.ca.
FM Clinical Skills Day	UBC FP Department Send receipts to the administrator who has been emailing you regarding FP Clinical Skills Day xxx@ubc.ca (note: not IMGO)

Summary of orientation sessions Sign up for some organizations Connect to Eduroam WiFi Get reimbursed for expenses during orientation

Kim Co

Kim is a family practice resident at the SPH-IMG site (2022-2024). She is passionate about simplifying unnecessarily complicated administrative tasks so residents can focus on learning and wellness.