Humboldt will be hosting some Saskatchewan medical students this summer, in the hope of attracting them to practise here after they finish their school.
Humboldt was chosen as the sole rural destination for the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) student bus tour on August 20, reported DonnaLyn Thorsteinson of Humboldt's Doctor Recruitment and Retention Committee (DRRC), which began their work early this year.
"When we first started the Doctor Recruitment and Retention group, the (Humboldt Medical) Clinic gave us an email they had received from the SMA (regarding the tour)," Thorsteinson said.
The SMA likes to send first-year medical students to one rural community in the province on a bus tour every year, Thorsteinson explained, in order to give them a taste of what rural facilities are like.
The SMA asks for communities to submit proposals as to how the students would spend the day in their town or city.
Humboldt did so - "we put something together," Thorsteinson said of the DRRC.
The proposal referred to the growth happening in Humboldt, and made special note of the new Humboldt District Health Complex that just opened on April 1, 2011. It also noted that Humboldt is the only district hospital in the Saskatoon Health Region (SHR). The balance of rural hospitals are "community" hospitals, the proposal notes.
Humboldt also has one of just two hospitals in the SHR to provide obstetric services, and also provides things like day surgeries and chemotherapy to local people through visiting itinerant specialists.
The proposal must have appealed to the SMA, as Humboldt was eventually chosen as the rural destination.
In total, 55 medical students from the University of Saskatchewan will be coming out to Humboldt on a bus on August 20. They will be touring local medical facilities, and having lunch with the DRRC, local doctors and SHR representatives. In the afternoon, they will get a tour of the community of Humboldt, and then will head out to Dixon to have some fun on the paintball course belonging to the Humboldt Paintball Club.
"We are super excited to be chosen," Thorsteinson said. "The timing is good for us, " she added. "We are trying to attract more doctors and these will be University of Saskatchewan students with the intention of practising in Saskatchewan."
With the new Humboldt District Health Complex now open, and all the recent work that's been done to try and get doctors, especially those originally from this province, to stay here to practise, the timing couldn't be better.
Thorsteinson is hoping that after their first taste of Humboldt, the students will want to come back for more.
"They can train, do their residency (here), and come back and practise (here)," she noted.
