Medical training to expand

Jul 29, 2021 | 4:14 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Northern Medical Program is planning to expand its teaching capacity.

It is hiring a consultant “… to explore the development of an Interprofessional training centre (IPTC) for the purpose of providing teaching and learning opportunities for students and the provision of clinical services to the community” in partnership with UBC and Northern Health.

“We’re looking at an interprofessional clinic, which will be student-led, with students from multiple professions, potentially, seeing the same patient or group of patients work alongside each other,” explains Dr. Paul Winwood, Associate Vice President with the Division of Medical Sciences at UNBC.

He says the program would likely start with physical therapy, occupational therapy and counselling students. but the hope is to eventually expand it to Northern Medical students, psychology, nursing, and, ultimately, all the health professions taught here.

The consultant will look at three possible ways of operating such a program.

“One model would be that it’s run by Northern Health and our students come to the Northern Health facility. Another model would be that it’s run by an independent or private company and the other model is it would be run by the university. We’re trying to establish which would be the most effective model,” explains Dr. Winwood.

Ideally, he would like to have the program up and running as soon as possible, but realistically, it’s more like in a year or two.

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