JANET CHUNG
Program Manager, Undergraduate Medical Education
Site:
Vancouver – Diamond Health Care Centre
Janet Chung, Undergraduate Medical Education Program Manager with UBC’s Department of Emergency Medicine.
How long have you worked in the Department/UBC?
I’ve been working with the UBC undergraduate program since before the Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) was an official department within the UBC Faculty of Medicine (FoM).
I started working in the Emergency Department at VGH in 1991. I worked as the administrative support for the VGH Emergency Department, supporting the FRCP emergency medicine program (which had just one resident per year, at the time), UBC undergraduate learners (which had a small cohort of approx. 80 students per year), and the VGH EM physician group.
I transferred to the DEM in 2008 when it officially transitioned from a division within the UBC Department of Surgery to a department within the FoM, and have since been overseeing the day-to-day operations for the DEM Undergraduate Program.
Can you summarize what you do in the department?
Working closely with the Program Director, I provide guidance and support to the site leads and support staff at all emergency medicine undergraduate sites supporting our year three and year four students.
My role involves the organization of many things and people (faculty, staff and students), schedules, student rosters and UBC systems. A large part of my role involves ensuring that everyone shows up at the right place and time, and has received all the necessary information to fulfil their roles as teachers or learners.
What is your favourite thing about working in the department?
There is more than one thing. I have loved getting to know so many interesting and dedicated faculty and staff over the years, and seeing the specialty of emergency medicine grow. I have also loved getting to know students, watching them progress into emergency medicine residents, and eventually seeing them become physicians at sites throughout the province and beyond.
What is one interesting fact about you that people may not know?
I have been known to stand-up paddle out to Passage Island, across to Snug Cove and back to the dock at Eagle Harbour, all in one go. In all my miles and years of stand up paddling, I have not ever fallen off my board. Now I just jinxed myself!
What kinds of hobbies and interests do you have outside of work?
I spend a lot of time outside tending to my garden – my happy place. In the summer, we spend a lot of time out on the water sailing off the tip of Bowen Island or up Howe Sound. In the winter you will find us on snowy adventures with our dog Bailey, up on the trails in Cypress Provincial Park. I love it when both of my kids are back home and we can head out on hiking adventures or just hang out together
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