ESTEVAN - For the fourth straight year, St. Joseph’s Hospital is part of a longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC) program, and it’s bringing a couple of hopeful young physicians to Estevan to gain some much-needed experience.
Devynn McKenzie hails from Churchbridge, while Murphy Walker is from Comox Valley, B.C. Both are third-year students at the University of Saskatchewan’s School of Medicine who arrived in Estevan on July 31, and have enjoyed their time in the community.
“I’m really excited,” McKenzie told the Mercury. “Everyone at the hospital and in Estevan has been really friendly and so welcoming, so we’re really excited to be here.”
Since arriving in Estevan, McKenzie has had some shifts in the family medicine clinic and the emergency department, giving her some varied experiences.
She has been working with a few of the physicians as well.
Estevan has made a great first impression on Walker, too, thanks to the people he has encountered.
“So far everyone’s really friendly,” said Walker. “My neighbours are great, and everyone in the hospital is really welcoming. I’m just really excited to work with all of the doctors here. They seem really knowledgeable and eager to help me learn.”
He has spent time in the emergency department and in the family medicine clinic at the hospital and at the Primacy Medical Group in the No Frills building.
This week he will be spending time at the Addictions Treatment Centre at St. Joe’s and getting to know the patients.
It’s something he’s looking forward to, because he has a keen interest in mental health.
“I think it’s becoming increasingly important in medicine for family physicians to be familiar with how to treat mental health and illness,” said Walker.
The past 18 months have been challenging for everyone, including Walker, because a lot of his learning had pivot to virtual sessions. He’s excited to be back meeting with people in person, talking with them and building connections.
Over the course of the year, Walker and McKenzie will devote time to each of the different departments.
McKenzie said she was interested in the LIC program because she hails from a town near Yorkton, so she wanted to experience practising medicine in a smaller centre.
“I guess one of the biggest reasons would the longitudinal nature of the program,” said McKenzie. “Normally we would be doing rotations in different disciplines in medicine, one after another. But in the program here in Estevan, we get to experience lots of different disciplines and environments within medicine at one time, which makes for a really great learning experience, and allows you to integrate what you’re learning throughout,” she said.
McKenzie had heard wonderful things about the LIC program, the physicians in Estevan and the administrative staff at St. Joe’s from the previous LIC students.
“They said it was a really great experience and they were really sad to leave, so that was a good sign,” she said.
Walker added the LIC program seemed like a better way to build relationships with people, not just the physicians, but the patients at the hospital.
He recalled visiting Estevan in 2019 through the Saskatchewan Medical Association’s Road Map Tour, which takes students from the College of Medicine to smaller centres in the province in an effort to have them consider rural medicine.
“I did a little tour of the hospital, and then toured the town, and it was my first time coming to Estevan. It just seemed like a really welcoming environment,” said Walker.
The traditional rotational style for third year students would see them visit hospitals for two to six weeks.
McKenzie has been getting to know the other people at the hospital, but everyone has been so friendly, and the size of the hospital lends itself to those regular interactions. People have been helpful in assisting her find her way around.
She is interested in a career as a physician because she has a keen interest in medicine itself, because she likes to learn about how the body works, and how disease and illness can impact a person.
“The biggest part would be the opportunity to work with people and to get to be with them through an important and difficult time during their lives, when they’re in the hospital or experiencing something difficult.”
She is looking forward to experiencing all that Estevan has to offer, especially outdoors in the remaining weeks of summer.
Walker says that in addition to familiarizing himself with the hospital, he has been spending time at the Estevan Dog Park, as he and his fiancé brought their dog with them.
“It’s challenging to move to a new town, but I think some of the pros are that everyone is so friendly and welcoming here, and I expect that I’ll get the opportunity to do a lot more things, and to gain the trust of the doctors here and to be a lot more independent than a lot of my peers might get in their traditional style of learning,” he said.
