U.S. doc ‘comes home’ to Brandon

The newest emergency department physician hired to work at Brandon Regional Health Centre was trained in the United States but was born and raised in Manitoba.

Dr. Arleigh Trainor said after interviewing for positions all over Canada and a few places in Manitoba, she decided to “come home.”

“I’m very, very happy and excited,” Trainor told the Sun from Sioux Falls, S.D., Thursday morning.

“I also interviewed in Winnipeg, but it was truly the mix of academics and clinical that drew me to Brandon,” she said.

Besides working for Prairie Mountain Health, Trainor has also received a letter of offer from the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine satellite program in Brandon, which provides training for medical students in their third and fourth year.

“It’s not finalized, but I’ve been offered the position of the assistant dean, working under the associate dean at the satellite campus, and that’s how I ended up deciding on Brandon.”

Trainor is one of 33 American-trained doctors who are in various stages of recruitment. Five of them have already started working in Winnipeg, according to Manitoba Health, which set up its Health Care Retention and Recruitment Office last year.

In June, the province approved a change to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba regulations, streamlining recruitment for U.S. doctors to apply for full licensure if they meet certain requirements.

The changes will enable those doctors who move to Manitoba to “hit the ground running,” said Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara.

“I had a lengthy conversation with a physician who just moved here a few weeks ago,” Asagwara told the Sun.

“He was really excited to … stand beside a patient, discuss their diagnosis and know that he’s no longer going to have to take into consideration whether or not this person can afford the medication,” they said.

Trainor said moving back to Canada was always her long-term plan, but the wheels started turning earlier this year when she was at an international conference on emergency medicine in Montreal, Que.

She noticed a recruitment table hosted by Dr. Savitri Ramaya, Prairie Mountain’s associate chief medical officer.

“I learned about a lot of the new policies that had been introduced to draw people and entice them from the U.S. with the new rules and regulations,” Trainor said.

“They made it much easier to come across the border and practise medicine compared to 20 years ago. So I decided yep, I’m going to apply.”

Trainor was born in Winnipeg and raised in Thompson. Her post-secondary education took her to the University of Laval in Quebec, U of M, the University of North Dakota for her undergrad in audiology, and eventually, medical school in Minneapolis.

“Emergency medicine just suited me,” Trainor said.

“It was a fit, as they say. I loved everything about it. It suited my personality to a T.”

Since 2011, Trainor has worked in the ER at the Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls.

For the last nine years as well, she has been chief of the division of emergency medicine at University of South Dakota-Sanford School of Medicine.

“I’ll be working here until the end of December, and then I’m headed to Brandon,” Trainor said.

“So my start date will be February or March,” she said.

PMH chief medical officer Dr. Adrian Fung said he is excited about Trainor coming to Brandon and credited the health region and province’s recruitment and retention teams.

“Our increased collaborative work has been key to the recent successes that we have seen. This includes attending career events whenever possible,” Fung said.

When asked about PMH receiving one doctor, compared to the five for Winnipeg, Asagwara said the question was “totally valid.”

“What I can tell you is that we are very intentionally highlighting Westman as a great place to live, work and establish roots,” Asagwara said.

“Sometimes it just takes that one doctor at that one site to be the catalyst for many more physicians relocating and choosing that to be their place to practise,” they said.

“We’ve seen that with other sites across the province, with doctors from international jurisdiction, and we’re hoping that we see that happen for Westman.”

Trainor said she has filled all the necessary paperwork and is now waiting for her medical licence application to be approved so she can practise in Manitoba.

“It’s a new chapter for me, and I’m excited about that,” Trainor said.

“It will be sad to leave friends, but when you have a good opportunity, you take it.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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