As we believe in continuous learning, our interdisciplinary team have supported trainees of varying levels in the UBC Pain Medicine Residency program, UBC and other Canadian Faculty of Medicine disciplines (from Calgary, Toronto, Western Ontario and Halifax), University of Victoria Nurse Practitioner program, UBC Faculty of pharmacy, UBC School of Social work and the Simon Fraser University Kinesiology program.

Since 2013, we have helped train over 100 trainees and practitioners through individual preceptorships for family practitioners, orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, internists, psychiatrists, pain specialists, pharmacist, nurse practitioner, radiologists, psychiatry and residents in emergency medicine, anesthesiology, internal medicine, addiction medicine.

Many of our staff have also successfully been accepted into academic programs for medicine, physiotherapy, chiropractic therapy, counselling, social work, nursing, nurse practitioner, ultrasonography, kinesiology, and coaching.

However, it was clear that there was a paucity of skills training for International Medical Graduates (IMG) colleagues. Hence, we sought to address this gap in training facilities for international medical graduates.

In this regard, we provided on-the-job training to learn the BC healthcare system via patient care coordinator positions and ultimately, we developed a clinical training pathway via the two-year Interventional Pain Medicine fellowships for specialist and GPs in 2016 and 2022 respectively.

Our two-year interventional pain fellowship is the only BC pain fellowship training site recognized by the UBC Post-graduate Dean’s Office since 2016.

In 2022, we also piloted a hybrid anesthesiology and pain medicine training fellowship with the departments of Anesthesiology at SMH and Peace Arch Hospital.

In 2022, at changepain, we received approval from Post-graduate Dean’s Office to start the two-year Post graduate trainee program for International Family Practice Graduates

In 2024, we have started a hybrid physical medicine and pain medicine training fellowship and developed a relationship with the Embassy of Kuwait with the Faculty of Medicine and APT.

The comprehensive training in these programs consists of Foundation of Pain Medicine interactive series, weekly rounds, academic projects, hands on procedure training with ultrasound and fluoroscopy, pain infusion therapy and participation in a 65-member interdisciplinary team. The academic curriculum parallels the RCPSC pain medicine topics with the additional competency evaluation of the breadth of interventional pain management.

As of 2024, we have capacity to train up to 6 fellows/post-graduate trainees a year and will start our first Kuwait fellow in 2024 as per our training agreement with UBC and the Kuwait Embassy.

These two-year programs have enabled one of our IMG pain fellows to receive an invitation from RCPSC to write their specialty exams and it has also supported GP IMGs in their applications for Clinical Assessment Program with the Faculty of Family Medicine.