All 147 first-year medical students from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry fanned out across southwestern Ontario this week to experience first-hand all that rural and regional medicine has to offer.
The goal of Discovery Week is to inspire medical students to practice in rural, small and mid-sized communities in southwestern Ontario upon completion of training, and to provide students with an understanding of rural/regional medicine.
The program, coordinated through the Southwestern Ontario Medical Education Network, has evolved into become one of Western’s most positive community outreach experiences.
This was recognized with an award this year from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education for best community outreach program. Students will spend four days in doctor’s offices, health clinics and hospitals working alongside physicians as they care for patients.
The communities that welcome medical students year after year have come to view this week as a valuable recruitment opportunity. Many pull out all the stops to show the best of what life in a smaller community is about, whether visiting farms for home-cooked meals or seeing amateur theatre productions.
On Friday, the students get together to discuss the experience.
“We are pleased that 45 per cent of this year’s medical graduates are going into family medicine,” says Dean Carol Herbert. “That’s the highest number in years and we believe the kind of exposure offered through Discovery Week is helping to build that interest.”