Program administrator Janice Skilliter and site director Dr. Sean Groves (both centre) are seen with this year's resident physicians. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

health care

La Ronge residency training program successful in recruitment, retainment of local doctors

Jul 11, 2023 | 3:48 PM

Six medical resident students have arrived in La Ronge to gain valuable experience on their path to becoming doctors.

The La Ronge Rural and Remote Residency Training Program is led by site director Dr. Sean Groves, as well as program administrator Janice Skilliter. The training program is designed for those who have completed four years of medical school and who are looking to specialize in a specific area of medicine.

“We do a training program in rural and remote family medicine, so we have residents come up for a two-year training program and we do a longitudinal program in La Ronge,” Groves said.

“Residents will spend six months with us here in the community, just kind of getting to know the community, the lifestyle, the health issues and just working alongside physicians, doing a lot of the same work we do and kind of learning with us, and we kind of act like mentors and teachers with them.”

After the first six months, which spans from July to December, they then do some consolidated training in Regina to gain experience in areas they don’t see as much of in La Ronge. They’ll spend some time in the intensive care unit, with the trauma team, an emergency department and have a few other rotations.

Legacy Hall Donor

Prete family donates $500K for Co-Op Centre's Legacy Hall

18h ago

FSIN

Chief Bobby Cameron re-elected for fourth term as FSIN Chief

Oct 31, 2024

Economy

Economy stalled in August, Q3 growth looks to fall short of Bank of Canada estimates

Oct 31, 2024

For their second year of training, they come back to La Ronge and spend a year working alongside the physicians doing a little bit of everything. They do on-call work at the hospital, fly out to the northern communities that local doctors provide services to, and provide a few resident-led clinics in town. They also go to Scattered Site, long-term care facilities, group homes and high schools.

“As they progress through their second year, they get more and more responsibility,” Groves said.

“By the time they are done their training, the expectation is they will be able to function as kind of practicing physicians, being able to work independently, make decisions, do all of that. We try to get them to the point when they are finished up their training, that they are functioning as one of the physicians on the team.”

Groves explained the residency program began in 2010 and, since then, most of the physicians who have decided to work in La Ronge have come from the program. He said it has been huge in opening people’s eyes to the opportunities of working in a small community.

Other rural and remote training spots are located in Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, North Battleford and Swift Current, but Groves noted La Ronge is special in terms of the structure of the program because it is longitudinal where the residents spend the majority of their training working with just family physicians.

“We also try to have them involved in as many cultural activities,” Groves said. “If there is something going on in town, we try to dedicate some time for them to do that. A couple of them went to the Elder’s gathering in Pinehouse last month and spent some time just doing that as a community event.”

The resident physicians in La Ronge include Brody Burnett (Binscarth, Man.), Mark Coles (Calgary) and Gol Roberts (Brandon, Man.), all first-year residents. Second-year residents are Daniel Ferguson (Moose Jaw), Jessica Froehlich (Moose Jaw) and Kristi Galloway (Wetaskiwin, Alta.).

Ferguson was lured to La Ronge to train because of his passion for the outdoors, but added the positive mentoring and relationship-building has been the cherry on top.

“It’s not working for, but working with our preceptors, which I think is a different way of doing residency,” he said.

“A lot of the times we’re seen as colleagues, so there’s a lot of independence built in and a lot of our own decision-making of which we have a lot of support in the background. In a two-year program, that really builds your confidence quickly and I think that’s one of the strengths of the program and a strength in how we can build relationships here.”

Although it’s the early days in La Ronge for Coles, he mentioned everyone has been welcoming and he’s enjoyed being able to explore the outdoors. He also noted La Ronge was his top training choice because it appealed to him in terms of what he wants for his goals, career and training.

“Often in an urban environment, you have the luxury of having a lot of resources at your disposal and, oftentimes, it can be easy just to refer people on to a specialist if you know they are just around the corner,” Coles said. “But here, you actually have to be more involved with patient care and be using what’s around you, and I think that’s a great training opportunity that you’re not going to encounter in the city.”

—

derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno