Local doctor hopes med students choose rural
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/01/2024 (599 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Brandon doctor hopes the day he spent with medical students this past weekend makes a difference on the doctor shortage faced by Brandon and rural Manitoba.
Dr. Lennard Skead, an anesthetist with the Brandon Regional Health Centre, volunteered to participate and teach this past weekend to visiting University of Manitoba medical students who are part of the Rural Interest Group Weekend (RIG).
The doctor said he wanted to pass on some of the skills he’s acquired during nearly four decades of practicing medicine while highlighting the need for rural physicians.
A group of medical students from the University of Manitoba take part in a Rural Interest Group workshop at the Brandon Regional Health Centre on Saturday. (Photos by Kyla Henderson)
“We are all acutely aware of the physician shortage all over the country,” Skead said. “We need to motivate the new generation of physicians to invest their lives and time into the rural areas. Canada is a huge country, we cannot all live in Toronto or Vancouver, or Winnipeg.”
The BRHC and the Souris Health Centre hosted the students over the weekend. RIG is a student-led initiative, supported by Prairie Mountain Health, in partnership with Health Careers Manitoba, Max Rady College of Medicine and U of M Faculty of Sciences. Several doctors, nurses and other health care workers volunteered their time to help run and host the students.
The weekend was a combination of learning and fun. The students participated in hands-on clinics, discussion panels, a reception, and a trivia night. The goal was to allow them to mingle with doctors and other health-care professionals who work in the region, to get them to consider the benefits of a rural career and life.
Skead, at 66, is semi-retired, but with the doctor shortage plaguing not just Brandon but the province as well, he ends up working full-time hours most of the time. He said his goal is to not only pass on his skills and knowledge, but help the next generation of doctors see the value of living outside of big cities. Skead said he and his wife have lived in Brandon for 26 years, raised two successful children in Brandon’s schools and have loved being a part of the community.
“I think a lot of our shortages in rural areas have to do with a lack of information for the upcoming generation of physicians,” he said. “They are not aware of all the advantages that can be gained from living and working in a rural community and the personal satisfaction that they can gain by being part of a community that appreciates them.
“I wanted to tell the new generation, you can make a wonderful life in places like Brandon or similar to Brandon and you do not have to stick to the city. You can get so much personal satisfaction above treating and helping your patients, which is why you’re in medicine in the first place. You can actually make your life better on top of making a lot of other people’s lives better.”
Jessica McBride, who hails from Virden, was part of the group of medical students taking in the weekend. McBride, a second-year medical student, said she hopes to practice family medicine closer to her hometown when she graduates.
“I really enjoy the huge variety of things that you can do,” McBride said. “Like working in hospital, clinics, working in the ER, delivering babies … you get to do every part of medicine.”
A record number of 55 students participated in this year’s RIG. The hands-on workshops focused on learning how to help patients breathe, suturing, studying hearts through an ultrasound machine and casting, to name a few. The practice gave them wide exposure to the different hospital areas.
Lana Minuk a respiratory therapist with the Brandon Regional Health Centre, shows the ropes to University of Manitoba medical student Khulood Hasnain.
Skead said the difference for doctors between working in rural centres like Brandon and a big city is like “night and day.”
“The big places, the big centers, you don’t get personal satisfaction, you don’t get personal recognition,” Skead said.
”It’s not a burden to live and work rural. I’m saying it is actually an advantage. It’s better for your physical health, it’s better for your mental health … It’s my hope that if I could even influence only one or two out of the 55 that came this weekend and they decide to come to Brandon one day, then that’s a good thing.”
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