More than 50 future healthcare professionals will be visiting southeastern Alberta this weekend to discover the advantages of living and working in rural Alberta.
RPAP | Health Workforce for Alberta, in partnership with the Town of Bow Island, Village of Foremost and the County of Forty Mile No. 8, will be hosting a Medical Skills Weekend in Bow Island on 25-26 October 2014. RPAP-sponsored Skills Weekends provide first and second-year medical students, nursing and physiotherapy students with the opportunity to visit rural Alberta communities and experience healthcare in a rural setting.
Students from the RPAP-supported Rural Medical Interest Group of the University of Calgary, as well as nursing students from Mount Royal University, and Physiotherapy students from the University of Alberta, will experience a busy weekend of skills training taught by local physicians, nurses and physiotherapists. Participants will also learn what it is like to practice in a rural community, and discover if the Bow Island area is a practice site they wish to consider in the future.
In addition to teaching students basic skills, Skills Weekends are valuable opportunities for rural Alberta communities to showcase their assets to students in healthcare disciplines. Participants will receive a tour of the Shamrock Hutterite Colony south of Bow Island; and will be guests at an evening Community Dinner at the Bow Island Golden Age Centre and a pancake breakfast the following morning at the Bow Island Multiplex.
Skills Weekends are arranged by the RPAP Medical Students’ Initiative Coordinator and are scheduled throughout the year in rural Alberta communities.
RPAP | Health Workforce for Alberta supports Alberta’s rural practitioners, their families and communities in improving the quality of rural health care by offering comprehensive, integrated initiatives to enhance rural medical services, education, attraction, recruitment, and retention.
To learn more about Medical Skills Weekends, see www.rpap.ab.ca/skillsweekends.
Media inquiries:
Rosemary Burness
RPAP Medical Students’ Initiatives Coordinator Rosemary.Burness@rpap.ab.ca
Office: 403 995 2136
Cell 403 650 6268
Jonathan Koch
RPAP Senior Communications and Marketing Consultant
Jonathan.Koch@rpap.ab.ca
Office: 780 423 9911 ext. 106
Cell: 587 987 4325
Related: Bow Island to host future health-care professionals this weekend
Photo: Students at 2013 Skills Weekend event in Westlock practice suturing with the assistance of local healthcare professionals. (RPAP)