Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital hosted four medical students from Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry during Discovery Week 2024.
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The Discovery Week program, which this year ran May 26-30, provides each student the opportunity to take the knowledge they learned during their first year of medical school and translate it to the real world.
TDMH medical staff and team members provided immersive learning experiences for students Rhidita Saha (Scarborough), Sahara Rosha (Oakville), Jin Son (Richmond Hill) and Steven Wang (Guelph) that focused on four areas: becoming familiar with rural/regional medical practice ; inter-professional education and care; acute and/or chronic care; and dealing with diverse populations.
During their time at TDMH, the students worked with family physicians, specialists and the emergency department.
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“I thought the week was wonderful,” said Rosha, noting it was her first real hands-on experience with some clinical skills like ‘scrubbing in’ to the operating room.
“These are a lot of things I didn’t have the opportunity to do at school where it’s a lot more theoretical in the pre-clerkship years (Year 1 and 2). This week really opened my eyes to hospital medicine.”
“It was fantastic, and overall, the experience was great,” said Son. “In London, we do have some clinical experience, even though we’re only in first year, but it’s mostly at academic centers in a large city-based hospital network system. Tillsonburg, and this kind of experience, exposed us to what it really means to be in a tight-knit community working in a hospital.
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“It was very memorable seeing physicians interacting with patients like they know them from their neighborhood. Overall, it was very friendly.”
“From the moment we got here, it was a very warm welcome,” said Wang. “And I think as we stayed here it became obvious that it does feel like a big family, almost, because everyone seems to kind of know each other.”
It was also interesting to see the scope of practice one can have as a rural physician, said Wang.
“Everything in the city is so subspecialized, but here you could be a family doctor, you could be a hospitalist, you could also be an emerging doctor as well. You can really have many different roles that are just not possible in a bigger place, and that’s something I realized this week.”
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“Overall, it was such a wonderful experience and it was such a great learning opportunity for us,” said Saha. “Some of the things I learned include how there are so many people that work together to make a hospital work and serve the community quality healthcare.
“It was really inspiring to learn about everyone’s roles within the hospital system, as well as how community organizations and the hospital work together to provide the best patient care. It opened up my eyes to what is possible as a physician, because we’ve only really seen what a big academic practice is like… but being able to see the direct impact on patients in the community by working in a smaller setting like this is very inspiring and shows the scope of the impact we can have when we serve communities like Tillsonburg.
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“It really did feel like one big family and I really appreciated seeing the tight-knit community that Tillsonburg has,” Saha added.
Rosha said she enjoyed her time both in the hospital, and outside in the community.
“We had the opportunity to get to know the Tillsonburg community and local residents, which was really awesome,” said Rosha.
“Really educational, but also really fun,” she said recalling a From Tree to Table workshop.
“I really enjoyed learning about some of the things that people around Tillsonburg enjoy doing, and why they love this community so much,” said Saha.
The students also learned TDMH serves a wide, growing catchment area; that TDMH, Alexandra – Ingersoll and the Woodstock hospital work together; and how different departments collaborate.
“We are just really grateful for the opportunity and for everyone making this experience so memorable for us,” said Saha, “and we just want to thank everyone who made this possible.”
Discovery Week 2024 marked the 26th anniversary of the program with more than 170 Schulich Medicine students placed in 31 communities from Owen Sound to Windsor-Essex to Tillsonburg.
“We want to thank everyone involved, from planning to mentoring and teaching us, but also the patients for letting us see them and to learn from them,” said Rosha.
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