Future doctors get chance to train in rural Manitoba health facilities

A small-town doctor says getting future physicians to choose rural medicine should start in their first year of medical school.

Dr. David Cram, a self-proclaimed "country doc," has practised in Souris, a southwestern Manitoba community of about 2,000, for more than four decades.

Cram and other physicians are sharing shifts with four first-year University of Manitoba medical students at Souris's health-care facilities, to give them a sense of what rural practice is like.

"We love having students," said Cram, including one who put in her first stitch.

"For her to be able to do that, and to see her first patient with heart failure, later on in life or in her training, she'll think, 'Oh, I saw that in Souris, and here's what we did, here's what we investigated,'" he said.

"To give them that learning is just so helpful."

The students visited Souris during Rural Week, which has been part of the University of Manitoba's medical school's curriculum for the past 22 years. It was created to encourage future doctors to consider working in rural Manitoba.

All health regions in the province participate, hosting students over two week-long periods (May 25-29 and June 1-5 this year). In the Prairie Mountain Health region, which includes Souris, 14 communities are hosting 41 students.

"They're so young and energetic, and their minds are like sponges. They soak everything up, and they're fascinated by everything you do," Cram said in the emergency department at the Souris District Hospital.

Winnipeg's Madison Chisholm said she was excited to sew her first stitch and master how to insert an intravenous needle.

Most of her field instruction is at the Health Sciences Centre, but her time in Souris gave her experience in a rural setting.

"I think people here are really resourceful and make do with what they have, and provide a lot of good care," she said.

Chisholm said it takes a "special skill set" to work in rural Manitoba.

"Living in Winnipeg, I really didn't know what it would be like to come and do rural medicine. So I like being here for a week, and not just a day," she said.

"We build relationships with the people we're working with and get a sense of what it's like, instead of just kind of … a small snapshot of rural medicine."

Before students are placed, they fill out a questionnaire about where they would like to be posted any areas of expertise that pique their interest.

Lily Giles, also from Winnipeg, said she left her answers wide open, and was pleasantly surprised by Souris's beauty. In the clinic, was impressed with her mentors' professionalism and rapport with patients.

"There's something to be said about working in a space that maybe doesn't have a lot of fancy technology and things that would be in the tertiary care centers," Giles said.

"But it's been really great to see the resources here and what the doctors are able to do, because they do great work. And that's really what it's all about — doing what you can for the patients with what you have."

Souris has five physicians and one nurse practitioner for its clinic, hospital and personal care home.

Dr. Jacob Yuriy has been in Souris for about five months. He was born in Dauphin, Man., where he said the rural family doctor did a little bit of everything. That's what he loved about the profession, he said.

Yuriy was supposed to do his family medicine residency training in Brandon, but because of a scheduling issue, he was sent to Souris.

"I had so much fun on my first rotation that I just kept asking to come back and come back," Yuriy said.

"I felt like I fit in, so I wanted to come here to work full time.''

Dr. Kyle Conrad said he remembers his Rural Week placement in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, even though it was more than 15 years ago.

Today, he's a family physician, anaesthetist and associate chief medical officer for Prairie Mountain Health in Brandon.

Once the medical students arrive, Conrad spends time with them, travelling to as many of the communities as he can.

"This is truly so important.… These are the people most likely to stay or have connections to the areas in the province that they're trained in," he said.

"We have to put the time and energy into those folks that are going to be our future leaders and look after our families in rural Manitoba."