Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA) recently welcomed almost 30 first-year medical school students from Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry for Discovery Week, spread out across the HPHA's jurisdiction.
It was the 25th anniversary of a partnership meant to provide students with exposure to working and living in a rural community.
Laurie Roberts, corporate lead, medical staff at the HPHA, said students participate in immersive, one-week placements in health care across southwestern Ontario.
The experience is vital for a number of reasons.
“It's important for students, particularly early on in their training, to have exposure to healthcare outside the tertiary academic centre,” Roberts said. “So they understand what the limitations are, opportunities are in a rural or regional community.”
StratfordToday joined the Huron-Perth group at the tail end of the week at Stratford General Hospital, where Discovery Week students from Western University were knee deep in the learning experience.
Dr. Ali Kara of Stratford led a demonstration in internal medicine for a small group, giving student Austin Solak an ultrasound of his heart and explaining what was being displayed and how those readings are translated into images on the screen.
As questions came from the students, Kara reiterated a point one of his mentors gave him when he was still a student.
“A fool with a tool is still a fool,” he said, explaining the importance of a fulsome medical examination. “The scanning is a helpful skill to have as an extension of my clinical exam … if you pick up something … it's to confirm your hypothesis.”
After some explanation of the machine and what can be done with it, observing students took turns using the probe, getting a sense of how to position it to get an accurate image. Dr. Kara guided them, giving tips and explanations of what was being transmitted to the screen.
By the end of the near-hour long demonstration, all the students – even Solak – got a chance to use it.
Hanna Hronyecz said that she really enjoyed her week and would consider working in “small-town medicine.”
“I like the scope of practise,” Hronyecz said. “I think that working outside of an academic institution really opens up what you can do.”
Solak, who spent most of the internal medicine demonstration being a patient for his peers, agreed.
“I think it really puts into perspective what she mentioned, the scope of practise,” Solak said. “As a clinician, you’re really exposed to a whole variety of your skill set as opposed to an academic setting where you might be extremely, narrowly focused on one area. I think it’s brilliant in that sense.”
Like chickens coming home to roost, doctors return to Stratford
In its 25th year, the fruit of past Discovery Weeks can be seen right here in Stratford.
Dr. Melinda Rodowa led a OBGYN demonstration at this year’s Discovery Week. She told StratfordToday she attended Discovery Week in Stratford over ten years ago.
“It was awesome,” Rodowa said. “Prior to that we had done a year of in-class work where you go through all of the biology and anatomy behind medicine, but I hadn't ever had the opportunity to see what physicians really do in the hospital.”
Originally from London, Rodowa got her first exposure to a hospital setting in the very hospital she now works at. In fact, she observed her first baby being born by C-section with a supervisor, who is now her co-worker.
Rodowa said that experience was instrumental in choosing Stratford as a home and a place of practise.
“I saw the cool things that you could do at a community hospital and really saw how there's a big community amongst the physicians and the staff … that stuck with me all the way through my training and led me to realize that this is the kind of practice setting that I wanted to have.”
Now ten years later and leading a demonstration, Rodowa called the experience surreal.
Another Stratford General Hospital doctor, Dr. Ziad Sabaa-Ayoun, had a similar experience. Like Rodowa, his first hospital experience was in Stratford. Now, he frequents the hospital as part of his rural practise.
“I was mostly interested in staying urban,” Sabaa-Ayoun said. “I was in Seaforth … and then we all regrouped here for our skills day and that was my first exposure to Stratford. And now my family medicine residency is in Ilderton, working more regional, rural.”
Over the course of Discovery Week, more than 170 Schulich medical students were placed from Owen Sound to Windsor-Essex.
