Prepare for Practice

Written By Kim Co

Overview

In this chapter, we guide you through the very important process of getting you legally allowed to start residency. A good time to work through this section is in May

You need two things to be fully activated by your first day (IMGs: your first day is day 1 of IMGO):

  1. Educational license with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC)

    • You will need to submit your medical diploma as soon as you get it to attain the CPSBC educational license.

    • IMGs! This is an especially time consuming step so do this ASAP

  2. Medical liability insurance with the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA)

You should also get your immunizations and N95 Fit testing up to date to satisfy PHSA Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) requirements

This is the time you’re probably getting emails from uas@phsa.ca with your network account information. We’ll explain what to do with those emails.

We need to submit our medical diplomas to get verified by the Medical Council of Canada (MCC). This is required for registration with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC). The processing time can take up to 6 weeks for IMGs so you should do this as soon as you receive your medical diploma from your medical school.

Steps:

Before you begin, do you have your medical diploma?

If not, contact your medical school to try to get this expedited and ask if they will be able to get it to you in time (ie. 6 weeks before your first day).

If you have not received your diploma or do not expect to get your diploma on time, ask your medical school to provide a document that states that you are expected to graduate by a certain time and are deemed to have graduated. With this, CPSBC can issue a waiver and a provisional educational license so you can start your residency on time. Contact them at postgrad@cpsbc.ca.

  1. Visit physiciansapply.ca and log in to your account

  2. Select Source Verification Requests on the left panel, then select Create a new source verification request (SVR) in the center panel

  3. Submit your medical diploma as instructed. Visit MCC: Verification of credentials for more details.

  4. Wait up to 6 weeks for processing. If you have not heard from them, we suggest you call them to follow up.

Insider Tip

If you do not have verification approved by the CPSBC submission deadline (May 15), do not panic! Unfortunately, this happens almost every year for IMGS. CPSBC is well aware of this issue and can often issue a waiver and a provisional educational license so you can start your residency on time. Contact them at educationalapplications@cpsbc.ca.

You are required to register with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC) before your first day (IMGs: your first day is day 1 of IMGO).

This section is intended for those who have never had a full practicing license with CPSBC (observership licenses do not count). If you have had a full practicing license with CPSBC, you should contact the College yourself to request licensing.

Steps:

Before you begin, did you submit your medical diploma to be verified by the MCC through physiciansapply.ca?

  1. Get your documents ready:

    • Digital copy of passport-style photo taken within the last 6 months

    • Digital copy of notarized passport photocopy (you submitted this to CaRMS as part of your residency applications)

    • Have you ever changed your name? If so, submit a digital copy of your marriage certificate and/or name change certificate notarized by a Canadian notary

    • Was your medical education not primarily given in English? Or was your patient care not primarily given in English? If yes to either questions, you will need to book and pass an English Language Proficiency Exam. You must submit your results to CPSBC before your start date (day 1 of orientation). Read the CPSBC English Language Proficiency Requirements document for more info.

  2. Visit physiciansapply.ca and “Share” your documents with CPSBC

  3. Wait for an email from CPSBC (donotreply@cpsbc.ca). The email should arrive mid-late April. If you have not received this before May 1st, please contact educationalapplications@cpsbc.ca.

  4. Once you receive the email, follow the instructions to create an account and submit the required documents before the deadline (May 15).

  5. After submitting your documents, you can check on your application on the CPSBC website under Application tracking. You won’t receive an email when it gets approved. You will only receive an email on the effective day of the educational license.

Insider Tip

If you are unable to make the deadline, do not panic! CPSBC may be able to issue a waiver and a provisional educational license so you can start your residency on time. Contact them at educationalapplications@cpsbc.ca.

Insider Tip: IMGs

Because the CPSBC licensing year runs from July 1st to June 30th every year, you will have 2 licenses activated and emailed to you:


License 1: Active from June 17th - June 30th of this year

License 2: Active from July 1st - June 30th of next year

All residents must arrange and maintain medical liability insurance through Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA). This is mandatory for all residents. It is a requirement for your license with CPSBC and as a member of RDBC. CMPA fees will be reimbursed to you automatically on your paycheck.

Steps:

Before you begin, did you receive the email from CMPA?

This should have been emailed to you in May. If not, you can visit CMPA: Register for an account and try to register on your own.

Note: you don’t necessarily need CPSBC registration when you join CMPA. You can add in your CPSBC information (ie. your CPSID number) later.

  1. In the email from CMPA in May, select the link “Apply Now” and follow the prompts.

You will need to complete the requirements for occupational health and safety (OHS) before starting residency rotations. Note that this is not necessary before orientation days, but it is best to get this out of the way now. There are 3 components to complete: Immunizations, N95 Fit Testing, and Online Courses.

Steps:

Before you begin, do you have your employee ID?

This is only available after you’ve completed registering as a UBC resident and completing PHSA employment forms. You can find your employee ID by visiting the UBC RMS website. Once logged in, select your name, then select the Resident tab, and scroll down to Resident identifiers.

  1. Self-report your immunizations through the Health Care Worker Self-Reporting website

    • Required vaccinations: Hep B, MMR, Varicella, Polio, Tetanus/Diptheria COVID

    • If you are missing any vaccinations, please see the UBC PGME Registration Guide for details

  2. Update your N95 Fit testing

    • This is required every 2 years

    • Most facilities will offer this onsite so please inquire with your Site Coordinator/Program Administrator for more information

  3. Complete Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) online courses on Learning Hub

  4. Attend the Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) online orientation in June. More information will be emailed to you closer to the date.

Each program/site will require you to complete mandatory courses before starting residency. These courses are often long and time-consuming so it’s best to get these out of the way.

Steps:

  1. Create a Learning Hub account. Note: it is advisable to use your UBC email when creating your Learning Hub account.

  2. Complete the mandatory courses required for all UBC residents.

    1. Infection Prevention and Control Practices

    2. Information Privacy and Confidentiality

    3. Student Practice Education Core Orientation (SPECO)

    4. Occupational Health & Safety and Violence Prevention

  3. Complete the mandatory courses required for your specific programs/sites. Please refer to your Site Coordinator/Program Administrator for more details.

Insider Tip

You should be reimbursed for any of these mandatory courses. Learning hub courses are typically free, but others may require a fee. Save these receipts and ask your site coordinators/program administrators on how best 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.

You have probably received at least one email from uas@phsa.ca with a bunch of account information. This is your account information for your specific health authority / hospital.

What are you supposed to do with these?

Unless you already have hospital computer access from previous employment, you actually can’t do anything with these yet. Just file it away somewhere you can reference it easily later.

If you’re keen, you can extract pertinent info from the email and organize it for easy reference - it might save you grief later. Here is an example of how and what info to extract:

Domain User ID Email Activation Code
vch JohnSmith1 JohnSmith1@vch.ca C96IC-RS2-I76YZ
Infosys JohnSmith2 John.Smith@providencehealth.bc.ca N95LR-EM0-Z53VX
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.

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