UBC CPD by the numbers — transforming health care in BC

This year marks the half-way point in our strategic plan at UBC Continuing Professional Development (CPD): a significant milestone in our mission to shape a stronger health-care system in British Columbia (BC).

Over the past two years, we’ve navigated rapid change in health care, advanced CPD research in new ways, increased access to learning in rural and remote communities, and collaborated on numerous partnerships within the Faculty of Medicine and beyond.

“A key part of our mission is to be responsive to emerging health needs,” says Jackie Howard, Director, UBC CPD. “We’ve risen to this challenge to evolve with the ever-changing learning environment and educational needs of health professionals.”

On July 23, the UBC CPD team met to celebrate these achievements and consider the future of CPD.
Delivering inclusive, quality education

As we reflected on this milestone, we took a closer look at how our programming supported health professionals this past year.  

As one of Canada’s leading providers of accredited Mainpro+ learning activities, we aim to inspire health professionals to improve care through personalized learning. On behalf of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, we review and accredit a high volume of external activities, exceeding 340 applications in the last year in addition to developing our own education with partners.

Since July 2024:  

  • Our learning activities garnered 84,579 registrations across urban, rural and remote communities.  
  • We hosted 44 conferences, delivered more than 30 webinars and continued to grow our library of 80 eLearning courses.

The This Changed My Practice platform has now published 340 posts on more than 650 topics, reaching over 100,000 subscribers with each article.

“Our commitment to support lifelong learning opportunities for the health community is grounded in our values of humility, curiosity and collaboration, and evident in the high-quality education we deliver,” says Howard.

Committed to embed principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) across our learning, we now offer eight asynchronous bilingual-focused modules, including Treatment as Empowerment: Advancing HIV Care with U=U / Le traitement comme pouvoir d’agir : l’avancement de la prise en charge du VIH avec I = I and We All Have a Role to Play: Increasing Access to Abortion Care in Canada / Nous avons tous un rôle à jouer : améliorer l'accès aux soins d'avortement au Canada.

Our Indigenous Patient Led (IPL) CPD Program reached nearly 400 participants in the Nawh whu’nus’en — We see in two worlds workshops in the last year, bringing practical knowledge around trauma-sensitive practice to health professionals.  

From March to June, we delivered a three-part webinar series with the Indigenous Specific Anti-Racism (ISAR) and Cultural Safety team to improve access to resources and practice tools for physicians. This important work toward reconciliation will soon be featured in an upcoming UBC Today gallery.

Building connection and trust

Strong partnerships are integral to our impact in the health community. UBC CPD partners with more than 80 organizations, including Faculty of Medicine departments, health authorities, joint committees and not-for-profits providing medical education.

In the last year, we collaborated with more than 50 partners on a variety of funded initiatives — including 15 with Faculty of Medicine departments — to co-create high-quality education and deliver popular conferences, such as:  

A new Rural Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Rounds session, Intro to Cardiac, was introduced in December, with the support of our long-standing partnership with the Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc).

In April, we launched a brand-new Nurse Practitioner Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program with Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of British Columbia (NNPBC) to connect NPs through a community of support.

We’ve also received funding from three national and provincial organizations to advance our research efforts at UBC CPD.

Sharing research insights to improve practice

Beyond education delivery and collaboration, we’ve taken strides in CPD research in the last year through published findings, symposium and event presentations, and a growing CPD Scholarly Interest Group.

Dr. Adam Gavarkovs, Research Associate, shares, “Our research efforts are driving continuous improvement here at UBC CPD. By publishing and presenting our work in reputable public forums, our insights can be leveraged by other CPD providers nationally and internationally.

Since December, we've had over four articles published in peer-reviewed journals like Rural and Remote Health, Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions and the International Journal of Medical Education.

We also presented at the annual CHES Celebration of Scholarship last October and Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Research Symposium in May, bringing awareness to topics like:

Since launching last year, the CPD Scholarly Interest Group has hosted six sessions and grown to 31 members of UBC faculty, staff and learners. The group fosters a collaborative environment to study the impact of CPD in practice.

Looking ahead

With nearly 50 staff, we are committed to ongoing excellence and improvement. We recently welcomed new leadership to our team of clinical directors and advisors, including Nurse Practitioner CPD Program Director, Dr. Kelvin Bei, and Midwifery Program Co-Director, Lindsay Brimblecombe.

We also create opportunities for student involvement and continuous learning. Over the last year, we hired four students through Work Learn and Co-op positions and hosted professional development sessions on topics like research ethics and the role of artificial intelligence in CPD.  

As we look ahead, we're excited to share the development of several new eLearning modules and a brand-new podcast series: CPD In Practice, to bring you the latest insights that are shaping health care in Canada today.

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