The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) is currently hosting medical students from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry for its 28th annual Discovery Week.
There are 20 first-year medical students who are gaining hands-on experience at the hospital.
"We have them do a number of skills labs. They shadow our physicians across a number of different specialties to get a sense of what practice in a hospital and what practice in a community setting looks like," said Director of Medical Affairs Brian Vandooren.
The real-world setting is meant to give the attendees practical experience, and Vandooren hopes they are able to take home some lessons from the excursion.
"One is an introduction to what medical practice really looks like in practical terms rather than theoretical terms," Vandooren continued. "Another one is to be exposed to a setting like CKHA where they have the ability to build the career and build the practice that they want and really be an amazing gift to the community, and they get a chance to see that in real time while they're here."
During CK News Today's visit to the hospital, students were taking part in a casting workshop as well as competing against their peers in a CPR competition.
"We got to do a lot, and see a lot of very different things," said medical student Rana Amayem. "I've learned a lot of skills that I didn't know at all before, like suturing, and we did scrubbing, so that was all really cool."
Amayem is from Sarnia and is excited at the prospect of working in a smaller community once she finishes school.
"You can really see the difference between a small community. I go to school in Windsor, which I feel is a little bigger. You can definitely see how everyone gets along, and everyone knows each other. There's just a very strong sense of support and community that I feel like you'll only find in areas like Chatham," Amayem explained.
Vandooren agreed with her. He noted Discovery Week can be unexpected for students who have grown up in bigger communities.
"People who have always grown up in a large city, through no fault of their own, truly don't know what communities like ours are like in practice, and seeing it first hand, seeing that you can really have a wonderful life here, a wonderful career here. It's pretty eye-opening for a lot of people, and it keeps them coming back," Vandooren said.
The placement is until Friday, with CKHA hoping some of them will consider practising medicine in Chatham in the future.
