Addiction Nurse Practitioner Fellowship

OVERVIEW & ELIGIBILITY

New nurse practitioner fellows are accepted into the program from a range of clinical and academic backgrounds. The program runs from July 2 to June 30 (one year). There is some flexibility with the start date and duration to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

We're pleased to offer Fellowship opportunities with focused clinical rotations in the Interior, Vancouver Island (primarily in Victoria), Fraser Health, and the lower mainland of Vancouver. Applicants should indicate their preferred location in their letter of intent, along with a brief summary of why they would be a good fit.

Fellowship Overview

The program encourages learning experiences in a variety of settings, including residential recovery, injectable opioid agonist therapy, withdrawal management, inpatient consultation, chronic pain, research, and other placements.
The program also supports didactic learning experiences through a two-week academic block, interdisciplinary and stream-specific academic half-days, journal clubs, research and presentation skills development, and clinical skills workshops.
There is flexibility in rotations based on experience and individual learning objectives.
Each Fellow’s rotations are tailored to learning objectives that are set with the Program Director.
A description of some of the key training rotations can be found below.

Eligibility

The BCCSU Addiction Nurse Practitioner Fellowship accepts applications from nurse practitioners who are licensed to practice in BC through the BC College of Nursing Professionals. Applicants who are currently in PhD/DNP programs and/or bring their own funding (i.e., salary reimbursement) will be prioritized.

The St. Paul’s Hospital Addiction Medicine Consultation Service

The Addiction Medicine Consultation Team (AMCT) at St. Paul’s Hospital provides interdisciplinary inpatient addiction consultations to the entire hospital, including all medical and surgical wards and the emergency department. Consultations involve addiction treatment coordination for medical comorbidities and opioid agonist therapy initiation, continuation, and monitoring. Inpatient withdrawal management, motivational interviewing, follow-up treatment recommendations, and coordination are also conducted by the AMCT.

Inpatient and Outpatient Chemical Dependency at Vancouver Detox

Vancouver Detox provides an excellent clinical learning environment for medical withdrawal management and related care. Fellows will provide full assessments and management in this 25-bed inpatient medically supervised withdrawal management unit, and will be exposed to the full spectrum of inpatient medical withdrawal management patient care. A Daytox program for outpatient medical withdrawal management and early treatment, located in the same facility, is also part of this rotation.

Women’s Recovery at BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre

Home base for this rotation is the Heartwood Centre for Women, a tertiary, provincial 28-bed residential addiction treatment facility for cisgender and transgender women. Fellows will be involved with the full spectrum of treatment, from withdrawal management to group therapy. There will also be some exposure to Fir Square Combined Care Unit, an inpatient stabilization and withdrawal management unit at BC Women’s Hospital for care for women using substances and infants exposed to these substances.

Pain Management at CBI Health Clinic

The Pain Management Program at the CBI Health Clinic is an intensive outpatient program. Fellows will be responsible for observing and learning about medical assessments—including taking histories and physical examinations using screening instruments —to support an interdisciplinary care team in diagnosis and treatment planning for patients with chronic pain disorders, many of whom also have concurrent substance use disorders. Fellows will learn about opioid rotation, conversion to long-acting opioids, and opioid withdrawal management, and will also become very familiar with the use of antidepressants, anticonvulsants, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and other medication therapies.

Inner City Youth Mental Health Program

The Inner City Youth Mental Health Program is a specialized outpatient service, with a housing component, which primarily deals with street involved and concurrently disordered youth. The program specializes in the assessment and treatment of high-risk youth. The Fellows will assess and treat patients with a psychiatric diagnosis and one or more substance use disorder(s). The focus will be on concurrent disorder practice (i.e., psychotic, somatoform and affective disorders as well as neurocognitive deficits (e.g., Fetal alcohol spectrum) in the context of substance use disorders.

The Inner City Youth Mental Health Program is one component of Foundry, a provincial network of integrated health and social service centres serving youth ages 12-24. Foundry aims to house health and social services within one centre and their philosophy is to engage and empower young people to create a tailored, individualized health and wellness plan.

Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment at Crosstown Clinic

The Crosstown Clinic offers injectable opioid agonist treatment within a supervised clinical setting for patients with severe, chronic opioid use disorder. A pharmacy operates on-site and the following staff provide services: physicians, nurses, social workers and addictions counsellors. The clinic also provides life-skills counselling, housing referrals and connects clients to legal assistance.

APPLY

Application Timeline for the 2025-2026 Addiction Nursing Fellowship:

September 2, 2024: Application process opens
November 29, 2024: Application deadline
December 2024 through January 2025: Interview period
February 24, 2025: Acceptance notification
March 7, 2025: Deadline for acceptance of offer by applicant
July 2, 2025: Fellowship begins

Please note: While the Fellowship is envisioned to begin July 2, 2025, there may be some flexibility with the start date, particularly for applicants who bring their own funding.

Application Details

Interested candidates must submit an electronic copy of the following documentation:

Two letters of reference
A 700-word letter of intent describing:

The applicant’s background,
The applicant’s preparation for the Fellowship,
Why they are interested in a career a career in addiction care, and
The ways the applicant imagines their experience as a Fellow will allow them to have impact within the system of addictions treatment and care.

One letter of support should be from the applicant’s manager or supervisor and outline employer/organizational support for the applicant to complete the fellowship program
A curriculum vitae

Please send an electronic copy of all application materials to [email protected].

Interviews

Interviews may be conducted with top candidates from each discipline shortly after the application deadline. Interviews may be in person, on the phone, or via Zoom.

General Inquiries

For further information about this Fellowship program, please contact us at [email protected].

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS

St. Paul’s Hospital at Providence Health Care is an acute care, academic, and research hospital located in downtown Vancouver. With over 500 acute care beds in use and home to many world-leading medical and surgical programs, the hospital serves both the local community and patients from across BC. Its downtown location brings many of Vancouver’s tourists and visitors to its doors. St. Paul’s also has a longstanding history of providing care to disadvantaged populations. For more information about St. Paul’s Hospital, please click here.

The BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) is a provincially networked resource with a mandate to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based approaches to substance use and addiction. The BCCSU focuses on three strategic areas: research and evaluation, education and training, and clinical care guidance. With the support of the province of British Columbia, the BCCSU hosts the largest interdisciplinary addiction medicine training program in North America, building capacity in the healthcare system in BC to improve access to evidence-based care. Although physically located in Vancouver, the BCCSU is a provincially networked resource for researchers, educators, and care providers, as well as people who use substances, family advocates, support groups, and the recovery community.

The University of British Columbia (UBC), established in 1908, is one of Canada’s leading research universities, consistently ranked among the top 40 in the world. The university attracts 54,000 students from across Canada and 140 countries around the world to two major campuses. For more information about UBC, please click here.

St. Paul’s Foundation raises funds to support compassionate world-class care, research, and teaching at St. Paul’s Hospital. The BCCSU Addiction Medicine Fellowship is a partnership between St. Paul’s Foundation, St. Paul’s Hospital, the BC Centre on Substance Use, and the UBC Division of AIDS. The program was launched with a $3 million landmark donation to St. Paul’s Foundation, gifted by Goldcorp, Inc. The Foundation continues to secure additional funding to support the program. For more information, or to donate, please click here.

Vancouver Coastal Health is a regional health authority providing direct and contracted health services including primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary care; home and community care; mental health services; population and preventive health; and addictions services in part of Greater Vancouver and the Coast Garibaldi area. For more information, please click here.

OVERVIEW & ELIGIBILITY

FELLOWSHIP CORE ROTATIONS

APPLY

FELLOWS

2023-24

2022-23

2021-22

2020-21

2019-20

2018-19

2017-18

2013-14

PROGRAM LEADERSHIP

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS

In This Section

Addiction Nurse Practitioner Fellowship

OVERVIEW & ELIGIBILITY

FELLOWSHIP CORE ROTATIONS

APPLY

FELLOWS

2023-24

2022-23

2021-22

2020-21

2019-20

2018-19

2017-18

2013-14

PROGRAM LEADERSHIP

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS

Share

In This Section

Login