The Clinical Teaching Unit (CTU) at Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC) is proving to be an effective doctor recruitment tool.
Two of the program's three recent graduates will be setting up their practice at the Menzies Medical Centre in Morden. They are Dr. Jen Holmberg and Dr. Carrie Ginter.
"(It's) super super exciting," said Patti Rach, program assistant at the CTU.
According to Rach, one of the new doctors plans to make obstetrics a large part of her practice, and the other will be doing lots of ER, clinic and walk-in clinic work. She noted, the addition of these two doctors is huge for the community.
"We all know there's been a number of doctors that have left, some have retired, and there's so many thousands of people in this area who don't have a family doctor and now we have two brand new ones, here and ready to serve the population here."
Every year, the CTU welcomes four new Family Medicine residents and students who train at BTHC for two years. They also have the opportunity to train in anesthesia, emergency medicine and palliative care, to name a few.
"They are matched to a primary preceptor in one of the clinics (Menzies Medical Centre or CW Wiebe Medical Centre), that is their mentor for the two years and is teaching them one-on-one," explained Rach. "They do other rotations as well, both in Winnipeg and here at Boundary Trails. They do a rotation of pedeatrics in Winnipeg and at Boundary Trails, they do obstetrics, they do surgery, they do internal medicine, intensive care. But their time here at Boundary Trails is mostly family medicine."
Rach added, residents who chose to set up in rural Manitoba have the freedom to tailor their practice to what they want.
Written with files from Robyn Wiebe