Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) will be host to 20 first-year medical students from Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry for Discovery Week 2019.
Taking place May 27 to May 31, Discovery Week places first year medical students in rural and regional health care settings providing a unique learning opportunity and an intimate understanding of the diverse experiences that impact health and wellness.
CKHA has participated in Discovery Week for more than 10 years.
“Discovery Week is a great opportunity to provide medical students positive exposure to rural hospitals like CKHA,” said Lori Marshall, President and CEO, CKHA. “This unique learning opportunity has brought back many Discovery Week participants to Chatham-Kent to complete electives during their third and fourth year of medical school.”
Organized by the Distributed Education Network, students from Schulich School of Medicine (London and Windsor Campus) partner with CKHA for a unique learning experience that offers exposure to community medicine for medical students. Students will have the opportunity to shadow family physicians, specialists, nurse practitioners and allied health care professionals in many areas of Chatham-Kent to find out what a typical workday entails. More than forty local physicians/allied health staff have signed up to be a preceptor/teacher to the students during this week-long learning experience.
“At CKHA we look forward to Discovery Week every year and once again we are thrilled to participate. It’s always gratifying for all of us involved to watch these students come full circle, as they graduate from medical school, enter residency and practice medicine,” said Kim Sutton, Interdisciplinary Education Coordinator, CKHA. “Our medical education continues to grow along with our partnership with Schulich School of Medicine. We can’t thank our preceptors enough for taking time to give these students their first experience in a health care setting.”
Discovery Week has been creating opportunities for medical students to experience rural and regional health care across Southwestern Ontario for the past two decades. This year, 33 communities extending from Chatham-Kent to Owen Sound will be participating. Discovery Week originally started as part of a strategy to attract doctors to set up practice in rural and regional locations. Research shows that students begin making career decisions early in their medical school careers. Discovery Week is designed to expose students to medicine as it is practiced outside of large urban areas before they make firm plans for their careers.
In addition to the in-hospital education component of the week, students will have the opportunity to meet the physicians in a casual atmosphere and experience firsthand some of the many amenities offered in Chatham-Kent.
