RhPAP wants to make the rural experience as positive as possible for health professions students learning in rural Alberta. RhPAP works in partnership with the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary to provide short term places to stay in 120 different accommodations in 40 rural Alberta communities.
Many are used by medical students for two weeks to up to a year while they complete clerkships and residencies, like Jamie Hilland and Alexander Miles who used RhPAP accommodations in Lac La Biche for their eight-week clerkship.
A grateful Hilland said, “We can walk in and we have a fully furnished house waiting for us which makes the transition into a new community so much easier, being able to open a door and have everything you need for the next two months.”
Accommodations are also used by other health professions students, like Kelsey Clark, a 4th year nursing student from Medicine Hat College, and Emily West, a 3rd year midwifery student from Mount Royal University in Calgary. Emily and Kelsey recently shared accommodations in Taber while doing practicums there.
“I wasn’t sure of the community or anything like that,” said Clark. “RhPAP just helped me feel so much more comfortable. It took so much stress off of having to find a place for two months.”
“It’s been a huge help,” added West, “and I feel really grateful to RhPAP for providing it.”
RhPAP wants to make the rural experience as positive as possible for health professions students learning in rural Alberta.
Eric Nashman is RhPAP’s Project Manager, Student/Resident Housing.
“It’s important that we provide that outlook in rural Alberta for those students who are considering it,” explains Nashman. “And in that sense, [students] might say ‘you know, I really enjoyed my time during my rotation and I would really like to set myself up and perhaps be [in rural Alberta] in the long term’.
If you are a health profession student and want to learn more about RhPAP Accommodations Programs, please contact the administrator at your post-secondary institution or go to rhpap.ca/accommodations.