If you are a first year medical undergraduate student at a Canadian university and are considering a career in psychiatry, the Psychiatry Summer Immersion Program was created for you! The program provides an opportunity to explore the field of psychiatry and engage with psychiatrists and psychiatry residents through interactive sessions and clinical observership placements. The three-day program is held after the academic year end for first year medical students.
The program is based in Vancouver, BC and includes distributed sites (Kelowna, Prince George, Victoria) where possible, depending on demand. Interactive sessions are video-conferenced to/from Vancouver and participating distributed sites. Clinical placements take place at various sites in Metro Vancouver and at participating sites throughout BC.
2019 Psychiatry Summer Immersion Program – June 10-12
The application period for the 2019 Immersion Program is now closed.
For more information, please contact Julia Lew julia.lew@ubc.ca
Perspectives on the 2019 Psychiatry Summer Immersion Program
“Great program!! Before I was undecided if I wanted to pursue [psychiatry] but now I have it as top 2 on my list. All the faculty, staff, and residents were so passionate.”
Comments such as this make running the Psychiatry Summer Immersion Program worthwhile. The second year of the Immersion Program took place from June 10-12, 2019 in Vancouver and at distributed sites in Victoria and Kelowna.
Over the three days of the program, 20 Year 1 UBC medical undergraduate students engaged with faculty psychiatrists in a wide variety of subspecialties through half-day interactive talk sessions and half-day shadowing experiences.
Students listened to faculty share personal stories of how and why they chose psychiatry as a career, the particulars of their subspecialties, as well as hot topics like mindfulness, the future of hallucinogens as treatment, and cannabis in psychiatry.
Shadowing proved a highlight for many. Each day, students were assigned to shadow different psychiatrists in a wide variety of subspecialties in diverse settings throughout BC.
“I didn’t know all of the different ways in which a person can practice psychiatry. Seeing the different subspecialties like sexual medicine and consultation liaison definitely opened my mind to areas of psychiatry I would be interested in.”
Students were also provided an opportunity to interact with psychiatry residents. Students not only learned about the residents’ own career paths to psychiatry, but also gained valuable insights and advice on their own medical education and training.
As with our inaugural program last year, 100% of participants that responded rated the program as ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ worthwhile.
“I want to thank . . . the lecturers and those who offered shadowing opportunities for providing their time and fostering an interest in psychiatry. I had an amazing experience, and I wish more students in the future will be able to use this experience to help explore their interests in psychiatric medicine.”
2019 participants (not all present in photo)
Students listening to a talk video-conferenced from Kelowna site
All comments are anonymous and have been used with permission granted by students in the program evaluation survey.