Rural Medicine

What do being featured on a Canada Day Parade float, surviving a grizzly encounter, catching my first 35 lbs salmon, getting picked up by teenagers at a run down bar, pulling all nighters in the health clinic, and making the front page of the local news have in common?  Not much.  Except after these 4 weeks in my 1st clerkship rotation, I can say "been there, done that".

As I plunge deeper into my clerkship years, I'm thinking more and more about what I want to be when I grow up.  Rural family practice is definitely one of a kind and has kept me on my toes.  It wasn't uncommon for me to drive 2 hours to even more remote villages for the weekly clinics there.  There were days where I'd poke babies for their vaccines, K.O. an aggressive alcoholic, and several motor vehicle traumas all before being called back in for someone with heart failure that was being choppered in.  I was able to do the ER bit, but still have complete follow-up with the patients.  Pretty neat stuff that ain't served in the city. 

I can definitely see myself doing this for a living but rural is...well  rural.  I freaken love the idea of being a jack of all trades physician and have the ability to go fishing nearby while "on call".  But I'm not sure the trade-off of friends, family, and urban conveniences is worth it.  I looked forward to work everyday, but I couldn't figure out whether it was 'cause I enjoyed suturing legs up at 2am or because the alternative of watching the clock tick until my next shift nearly made me slash my wrists. There were days where I'd get off work, hike, come home and it was still only 6pm.  From there, it was TV and youtube.  Not a soul in the street to chat with.

Verdict?  Rural medicine is great.  It takes a certain maturity for a city boy to trade off friends, family, and glitzy social scene of urban life though.  I'm certainly not there yet.  If I pursue family medicine in the future, I hope said maturity will be there.  After all, rural medicine is definitely the way to do family medicine.

1750km drive from home

It's June 2011. 2 years of classroom work later, I'm halfway through my MD. After roughly 750 lectures later, I can safely say I'm (for the most part) done being hosed down by powerpoint lectures. But that's not what I'm writing about today.

Every year, my school marks this occasion by sending its seasoned textbook-memorizing, hospital-drama virgin students out to the bush into rural communities. Each of us spends a month working with docs in communities ranging from smaller cities to those with populations in the hundreds. Students either jump at this opportunity or cringe at the thought of being isolated away from their nearest Starbucks franchise.

Fortunately for myself, I am stoked to be working in a community of only 400. Docs here do everything from stabilizing their neighbour's bbq burns to running clinics in helicopters. I have no doubt that this will (A) negate all the bad habits I picked up in Vegas post-exams (thanks, boys) and (B) revitalize medicine for this young buck. It's been a year since I worked in rural India and another dose of romanticized medicine couldn't come at a better time.

The drive took 2 days, but I'm in the most northern part of my province just chilling with the grizzlies in bear country. The air is crisp. The sun set was midnight last night. The people smile. Aside from the exorbitantly marked prices of food here, I have absolutely no complaints. What other degree sends you out to explore your nation, soak up the culture, fly-fish/hike/hunt while learning about your trade as well?

Armed with my Canon 7D and bear spray, I say "bring it"!