Elijah Van Dinther never forgot the day he spent shadowing a nurse who was helping patients after surgical operations. It was the exposure he got to the medical field through Discovery Healthcare Camp, an annual program for high school students, that piqued his interest in pursuing a career as a physician.
Each summer, the Office of Distributed Education at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry organizes Discovery Healthcare Camp, a one-week medical science summer camp, with the aim of spurring interest in medical- or health-related careers. The camp is offered in eight rural and regional communities across Southwestern Ontario.
“Discovery Healthcare provides high school students an early insight into the various aspects of health care through interactive workshops, hospital tours, mentorship from medical students and informative sessions with health-care professionals,” said Dr. Victor Ng, assistant dean of distributed education at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. “The camp strives to ignite passion among campers for health and medical sciences.”
Van Dinther attended Discovery Healthcare as a youth. He’s now a first-year medical student at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.
“Discovery Healthcare helped me realize I wanted to become a physician,” Van Dinther said.
“Seeing what I could do to help combat the health-care shortage in rural communities was such an important lesson for me from that camp.” – First-year medical student Elijah Van Dinther
Growing up in Watford, Ont., he was without a primary care physician for seven years. At the camp, offered in partnership with Sarnia’s Bluewater Health, he learned about the possibilities to be a part of the solution to increase health-care services in Southwestern Ontario. Van Dinther’s experience motivated him to pursue a career in the medical field, with hopes of one day working in a rural community.
Discovery Healthcare introduced him to various aspects of health care, including nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy and medicine.
“My most memorable experience was shadowing a nurse in post-op and seeing what they do day-to-day,” said Van Dinther. “Being able to witness to what they do, and the importance of their job is something I will take forward with me throughout my career.”
Early exposure to different techniques such as suturing, CPR, intubating and learning to take heart rates and blood pressure at the camp also helped Van Dinther recall the techniques faster once he began medical school.
Full circle
Van Dinther is a member of the Rural Medicine Outreach Club at Schulich Medicine. Run by students, the group helps to increase awareness of rural medicine among first-year medical students.
Its members organize tours of community hospitals and events such as ‘Doc Talks,’ which gives students deeper insight into the experiences of physicians at community hospitals. The club also promotes various outreach initiatives for high school students in rural communities, supported by Schulich Medicine.
As one of three Indigenous medical students in his first-year class, Van Dinther will be participating in Medical Learning in Community Settings (MedLINCs) this summer, a four-week summer elective program hosted by Schulich Medicine in collaboration with the Chippewas of Nawash Community Health Centre and the Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health team.
MedLINCs offers medical students an opportunity to engage youth in the Chippewas of Nawash and the Sarnia-Lambton communities to inspire them to pursue post-secondary education in health care-related fields.
“I think it’s really important that we’re able to show youth there that a career in health care is possible and something they can do,” said Van Dinther. “Hopefully, we can inspire them to go into health care so that we can not only help rural communities but also Indigenous communities as well.”
