Overview

Physician wellness is crucial to help health professionals align with their core values and restore personal and professional fulfillment.  

Research indicates that key obstacles to physician wellness for practice-eligible international medical graduates (IMGs) in Canada (including family physicians and specialists) include burnout, navigating a new health-care system and finances.

To address the complexity of physician wellness, UBC CPD’s British Columbia Physician Integration Program (BC-PIP), funded by the Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues (JSC), and the Joint Collaborative Committees (JCC), aims to deliver asynchronous, peer-led education to health professionals through a brand-new podcast series.

The project will provide health professionals with a unique audio experience to encourage reflection and use of skills, strategies and resources for their health and wellness.  

Shaping physician health and wellness

Designed to support the transition of IMGs to practice in BC, the BC-PIP program recognizes the importance of physician wellness and currently provides a live, semi-interactive virtual lecture to address wellness needs.

An Educational Quality Improvement (EQI) evaluation of the BC-PIP program took place at UBC CPD from 2022-2023 and revealed requests to shorten the BC-PIP orientation day and provide clear and accessible education on ‘physician wellness.’  

Education delivery

The podcast series aims to cultivate and expand a new culture of wellness among physicians. To achieve this, UBC CPD will deliver two forms of education — 1) a five-episode podcast series to highlight topics on physician wellness and share IMG stories and 2) a short online assessment for BC-PIP participants to complete.  

To help destigmatize physician wellness, the podcast series will use a casual, narrative approach to share IMGs’ lived experiences and delve into topics like navigating cultural barriers, stress and burnout. Resources will be shared alongside each episode to encourage listeners to reflect critically on their own needs and experiences.

Educational development will take place in fall 2024 and UBC CPD will launch the podcast series and online assessment in spring 2025.

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Partnerships

Funding for this Project is provided by Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues (JSC), and the Joint Collaborative Committees (JCC) of Doctors of BC and the Province of British Columbia.