HomeMy WebLinkAboutLakeshore Advance, 2013-09-04, Page 18Wednesday, September 4, 2013 • Lakeshore Advance 17
Western medical students Iearn 'You know you're a rural
doctor when...' during presentatlon at Seaforth's'Gateway
Susan Hundertmark
SMI Agency
"My name is Ken and 1 am a rural
doctor."
Speaking to 48 Western University
medical students during their first week
of med school, Dr. Ken Milne para-
phrased the "1 am Canadian" rant to
"bust myths" and encourage future
physicians to consider rural medicine
airin their training at a day -long sem-
at Seaforth's Gateway Rural Health
Research hlstitute last Thursday.
"Most medical students are not from
rural areas and they aren't thinking
rural medicine when they enter medi-
cal school. But we're here to introduce
them to all their options on the first day
during the first week," said Milne of the
new initiative by Western university
that was offered in Seaforth, Aylmer,
Woodstock and West Lorne.
"I'm busting the myth that intelli-
gence is inversely related to the dis-
tance you are from the city;" he said,
'Ile Gateway chair of rural medicine,
Milne told the students that with 10,000
hospital visits a year at South 1turon
t lospital in Exeter where he is chief of
staff, there is no x-ray or lab after 7 p.m.
and the only CI' scanner in town is a cat
with four legs.
"We are the because there
are no specialists here, just us," he said.
Quoting comedian Jeff Foxworthy,
Milne told the students, "You might be
a rural doctor when...a patient drops off
a urine stipple at your house, you're
known as the tractor trauma centre of
excellence or someone in a grocery
store drops their pants to show you
their rash."
"It's happened," he laughed.
But, he added that 0 Gateway part-
nership with Western through
SWOMEN (Southwestern Ontario Med-
ical Education Network) allows them to
publish a dozen medical research
papers a year.
4 /-Ie walked the students through three
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research projects he completed on pain
control, child tratnna and heart attacks,
all three of which had results that
showed rural hospitals can be centres
of excellence.
As well, he said an ongoing research
project 011 medical literacy comparing
rural and urban patients and their abil-
ity to read seven medical terms deter-
mines their likelihood of getting sick.
After assessing 1,200 patients, the
results were presented at medical con-
ferences in Vancouver and Victoria this
year.
Ile said there are still a number of
research projects in the works locally.
"1t is possible to practise rural medi-
cine 011(1 create a rural centre of excel-
lence," he said, praising Gateway for
creating the infrastructure that allows
rural doctors to do research.
Milne said rural medical research
began in Southwestern Ontario with
Western's SWOMEN office and
Goderich's 1)r. nim Rourke in the 1990s
but added that Gateway has taken it to
the next level.
"'the barriers doctors used to have to
moving to rural area were education
and the ability to pursue and contribute
to medical literature. Doctors going to 0
rural area thought that would end and
they would stagnate. But, rural tineas
('a11 be academic centres. It doesn't
matter where you're practising any-
more - you can come here and thrive
academically, enjoy working here and
continue to contribute," he said.
Gateway president Gwen Devereaux
said she was thrilled Gateway was
asked to participate in the event to
promote rural medicine to medical
students.
"It all goes with our Memorandum
of Understanding with Western and we
hope to see 0 lot of these students
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working with Gateway 00 placements,"
she said.
I )evereaux said°Milne was the perfect
doctor to slake the presentation.
"If he doesn't turn them on to rural
medicine, 1 don't know who will," she
said.
As a physician recruiter in the region,
Devereaux said recruiting family doc-
tors has always been a struggle because
only 12 per cent of sled school grads
usually consider jobs in rural areas.
Susan Nundsttmartt OMI Agency
Dr. Ken Milne, Gateway Rural Health
Research Institute's chair of rural
medicine, encourages Western medical
students to continue to be skeptical
and critical during a presentation about
evidence -based medicine and research
and the opportunities In rural medicine.
"With Western really promoting rural medicine, we're
starting to recognize the benefits. Our family health teams
are starting to fill up," she said.
First year medical student 'Travis Barron, of Torbay, New-
foundland, told the group that the experience in Seaforth
helped 111111 "feel awakened to rural medicine."
"It's the whole research element - I Was not aware it Was so
active before today," he Said, adding that he's excited to know
that his plan to work in rural medicine can include medical
research.
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