Young guns

When Ross Mason found out he would be doing his training in Pictou County, he was very excited. Mason is a third-year medical student at Dalhousie University. A former resident of New Glasgow, he had been away for six years and was looking forward to the return.
"I wanted to see what medicine was like back in my home town," he said.
Mason is one of three students who have come to Pictou County for the Medical Undergraduate Teaching Program offered by the Pictou County Health Authority. As part of the program, students complete clinical rotations required for their studies by working with local doctors in family practice settings.
Their experience in Pictou County will be well rounded and broad-based, with exposure to other elements in the health care system such as nursing homes and residential centres, along with introductions to other health professionals such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists and respiratory therapists.
"In the long view, if we want family doctors to practise in community settings such as ours, they need more exposure and positive experiences during training, which has significant implications for their career paths," said Dr. Aaron Smith, physician director for the program.
He said having doctors teaching the program accomplishes a lot of things - "from the recruitment and retention issue to showing what practising in PCHA is like."
He said teaching is rewarding for doctors and helps expose them to new and current medical practices, which in turn has positive implications for patient care.
"One of the benefits for the preceptors is it's good for their own practice. Besides being altruistic, contributing to the education of the next generation of doctors, preceptors usually require a university appointment, which is one of the nice benefits."
Smith said the long-term goal of the program is to propagate more interest in the field of medicine when students are considering a career and also increase the presence of resident physicians within the PCHA.
"The long view of what we're trying to do is recruit and retain."
The program makes it easy for students to come to Pictou County to train by setting up accommodations and trying to meet their needs as much as possible, said Nancy MacConnell-Maxner, co-ordinator for the program.
"Anything we can do to enhance the experience for our students."
So far, everything is going smoothly for Julie Gibson, third year medical student at SABA University, an American medical school in the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean. She is doing a one-month rotation with Smith.
"This has been a very great experience," she said. "Everyone is so friendly."
Gibson has done clinical rotations in the Caribbean and U.S. and this is her first rotation in Canada. She said it was fairly easy to get placed in Pictou County, unlike other places.
"In a lot of places it's like pulling teeth to get a rotation, but here it's quite the opposite."
She hopes to stay in Canada to practice medicine, but it will all depend whether she lands a residency within Canada, which could be tough since she has done clinical rotations outside the country.
"It's too bad Canada is not accepting to Canadians who have gone abroad and come back."
Monika Rowicka is involved with a slightly different program. She is in her second year of family medicine at Dalhousie and is doing a three-month rotation and practicum at the West-Side medical clinic.
Rowicka is a resident of Halifax but plans to practice in New Glasgow, where her fiancÉe and his family live.
"I've always liked the small-town feel."
For Rowicka, it wasn't a hard decision to go into medicine. Both her parents were doctors and she worked as a secretary in their offices in her younger years.
"I always knew I wanted to go into family medicine."
For these three doctors-to-be, the future is brighter than an examining light. Who knows, you may be sitting in the office of Dr. Mason, Dr. Rowicka or Dr. Gibson some day.