PRINCE ALBERT — The recently appointed dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan was in Prince Albert on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dr. Sarah Forgie has been in the position since July 1, 2024. Her trip to Prince Albert was part of a larger mission to see where students learn in Saskatchewan.
"This has been part of my desire to see the province, to see where we teach our students from the College of Medicine, and to meet the people,” Forgie said. “It's been a fun adventure for me.”
In her travels, Forgie has visited La Ronge, Swift Current, Moosomin, Estevan and Yorkton. She still has plans to visit Melfort after a snowstorm delayed her first opportunity.
Forgie said most students enter the College of Medicine after doing a four-year undergraduate degree, while some have advanced degrees or worked for a few years before deciding to enter.
The first two years involve a lot of classroom learning and some clinical pieces, she explained, followed by two years where students are mostly in a clinical setting.
Forgie said they hope to connect the two sides, clinical and classroom, in Prince Albert with the Victoria Hospital and the USask Prince Albert Campus.
"I would love to do that in the future,” she said. “Right now, they come in (for) the clinical parts, and then we also have residents who train here. They will come and work here (in) things like paediatrics, or they'll come for internal medicine. We have quite a few family medicine residents who come here.”
Forgie said that on Tuesday, she and several leaders and department heads from the College of Medicine and the Dean’s Office met with students in Prince Albert. She also met with clinical colleagues, including surgeons, anaesthetists and family doctors and paediatricians.
“I'm in paediatrics, so it was nice to see them,” Forgie said. “I was like,, yay my people.’ We went to the paediatric clinic. We went to the hospital, we went to the paediatric clinic. We had a lovely tour. I got to see where the new parts of the hospital are getting built, so that's amazing.”
During her visit, Forgie said she learned there are many incredibly talented, incredibly dedicate people who are employed in the city and huge proponents of working here.
"I think it's they're very proud of being here and the work that they do,” she said. “(They’re) passionate about it, which is really nice.”
She also met with Prince Albert MLA Kevin Kasun and attended a Prince Albert Raiders game and went for dinner with Prince Albert Campus Principal Jay Wilson and others.
Forgie got into medicine because both of her parents are physicians and she loved to watch how much they loved the work when she was growing up.
"I didn't really think about doing anything else,” she said. “(I) briefly wondered about vet school, but I love medicine. I think that was always the path, and I didn't know if I would like paediatrics.”
She added that when she was picking her “track” or set of clinical rotations in her second two years of medical school she still was not sure if she would choose paediatrics.
"I did it near the end of my training, and when I got there, I was like, ‘oh, my goodness, I love this,’ so sometimes you don't until you're there," Forgie said.
She said finding the right field after entering medical school is about finding what drives you and finding your passion. Most students, Forgie said know their track when they see it.
"It will be a combination of the patient population, the colleagues that you work with and the subject matter, and it'll just click,” she explained. “Sometimes it doesn't, and you need a bit more time, but there are so many options.”
Forgie said the other interesting part of medicine is that there are so many different areas. When she first started, she concentrated on clinical work. The she branched into teaching, which she loved, and later began doing work in research and leadership development.
One of her goals is to connect the College of Medicine to the province. That was part of the reason she was in Prince Albert on Wednesday.
"Connecting and helping people connect back with or continue to build the connections with the College of Medicine,” Forgie said.
A large part of her goals is helping people find their academic view to their work. That includes helping them with teaching, clinical work, research, or innovation.
Forgie said the goal is to help make the healthcare system even better.
“I think there's huge opportunity here with one College of Medicine,” she said. “We have one health authority, and there's a lot of data, so helping people get access to that data is really important and helping make things better.”
She has been appointed for a five-year term with an option for renewal if she chooses or the university chooses.
She is originally from Northern Manitoba, spent time in Toronto and then 21 years at the University of Alberta before coming to USask.
"What drew me here was the people and that spirit of innovation and that quiet humbleness,” she said. “What I would love to see is (asking) how do we promote how great Saskatchewan is, what a gem of a College of Medicine we have, and the University of Saskatchewan? It's really cool.”
