Dr. Marie DeCock has only practised for three years but she is eager to share her knowledge and love for rural life with medical students.
She remembers the impact preceptors had on her career path and wants to do the same for medical learners through RhPAP’s Rural Mentorship Program, an opportunity for first- and second-year medical students to spend a few hours observing a physician in a rural emergency room. Dr. DeCock also serves as a preceptor for resident physicians.
“It’s a good way to give back. Definitely, that is what helped me get interested in medicine…. Maybe they will get interested in rural practice, which is what we need more of.”
The full-time locum (a physician who fills in for doctors on leave or vacation) currently practises in Pincher Creek after completing her medical degree at the University of Alberta.
As a high school student, she shadowed fellow Pincher Creek physician, Dr. Gavin Parker, who also serves as RhPAP’s board chair. She returned to the clinic later as a resident physician during her medical training with the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.
Dr. DeCock doesn’t feel overwhelmed when taking on new medical learners.
“It definitely keeps me on my toes which is good to make sure I stay up-to-date,” she explains.
“Students will often bring in new studies or new things that they have learned in school so I learn from them a lot.”
Dr. Kristy Penner was also quick to become a preceptor when she started practising in nearby Blairmore 15 years ago. She encourages others to do the same.
“There’s no better way to feel confident than to have to teach a topic. I started with some of those weekends shadowing learners just because it’s pretty low stakes.
“Learners have so many great questions even about what feels like the most like mundane topic. They are so keen so it’s a pretty easy way to start teaching.”
About four students follow Dr. Penner through RhPAP’s mentorship program annually, which is designed to offer newer medical students a chance to spend six hours in a rural emergency department on a weekend.
The rural generalist also works as a preceptor about three times a week overseeing resident physicians through the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. It’s an invaluable program as well, but she acknowledges it is a greater time commitment.
Medical students aren’t the only ones benefitting from preceptorships, however.
“Having learners is a really good recruitment strategy,” maintains Dr. Penner. “Some of it is just to show pre-clerkship students how fantastic rural medicine is, what kind of variety we see, and how rewarding it is to practise medicine in a small community.
“Many of the mentorship students have never really been in a small hospital or in a small community so it really opens their eyes to the different opportunities….
“The evidence suggests that the more time people spend as a medical student training and as a resident training in a rural community, the more likely they will be to practice rurally.”
Dr. Penner agrees with Dr. DeCock that having a medical learner brings a different dimension to her work.
“Short term, I just find it it really helps bring some joy to to my practice. When I don’t have learners working with me for long periods of time I really miss it and it just helps prevent burnout.”
Rural communities, medical learners appreciate value of preceptorships
Patient Jim Griffith is used to seeing his Blairmore physician, Dr. Kristy Penner, with an entourage.
In fact, it’s unusual for Griffith to see Dr. Penner, a medical preceptor or teacher, without a medical student in tow.
Griffith, a Coleman resident for more than 50 years, doesn’t mind a bit.
He understands the value physicians offer by taking medical students of various levels under their wing as they care for their patients. It’s particularly important for rural Alberta communities.
“In the long run, we need more doctors,” he says, noting it reflects the level of commitment Crowsnest Pass Medical Clinic staff have for teaching students.
“He’s a huge ambassador,” adds Dr. Penner, noting Griffith doesn’t hesitate to spread the word to his city cardiologist on how the rural clinic plays a huge role in training future doctors.
Danielle Lysak was recently one of those learners.
— Photo supplied by Dr. Marie DeCock
She shadowed another preceptor, Dr. Marie DeCock, who practises in Pincher Creek just 32 km southeast of Blairmore.
Lysak, a first-year medical student from the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, jumped at the opportunity to see what a few hours in a rural emergency room (ER) looks like through RhPAP’s Rural Mentorship Program. The program connects first- and second-year medical students with physicians in rural communities.
She worked previously in the pediatric cardiology ward and the intensive care unit as a registered nurse at Edmonton’s Stollery Hospital.
“(The Stollery) is obviously very urban, highly specialized,” explains Lysak.
“Those kids are from all over. ‘How does this work when they go back to their home communities. (Who is) the person looking out for them in rural Alberta?’ was always something that I wondered about but never knew.”
The trip to Pincher Creek was an eyeopener even before she arrived at the ER.
“I was in awe of the drive there in the morning,” Lysak says of the scenic trip that revealed cattle and wind turbines as the sun rose. Coming home, she made sure to stop by Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a world heritage site.
Lysak was grateful for the opportunity to get a taste of rural medicine so early in her medical career.
During her six-hour shift she was particularly taken by the connections and trust Dr. DeCock has developed with her patients. Team collaboration was emphasized and supported as Dr. DeCock even answered the phone when necessary as there was no unit clerk on shift that weekend.
“It was a good learning environment,” says Lysak. She was impressed by the role Referral, Access, Advice, Placement, Information and Destination (RAAPID) plays in supporting rural healthcare and how health professionals navigate resource limitations such as imaging delays.
“Knowing that in rural you can still work with your hands, have tasks, handle emergent situations but that it’s not your every day and it’s not the end of the line. If someone is too sick, they get transferred to Lethbridge or Calgary and you have a piece in their journey but it’s not like the big referral centres where you have to have all of the answers.”