Shahzeb Khan had never been to Cambridge, Ont., before.
But after a week of touring private gardens, visiting various entertainment venues and shadowing family doctors and specialists, the University of Ottawa medical student is considering moving to the community after he graduates.
“I definitely have a much better impression of this city than before,” he said, standing outside of a glass-walled conference room in the grey and beige hallways of Langs Community Heath Centre, nearly 500 km away from where he currently lives and studies.
Khan is just one in a group of medical students brought to the city as part of Rural Ontario Medical Placement (ROMP) week.
The week-long program aims to get medical students into smaller Ontario communities to shadow local physicians, explore the area, and ideally, picture themselves moving there as more and more rural communities struggle to find family doctors.
The Ontario Medical Association says on its website that people living in rural and northern communities have a gap in access to health-care services and it’s most pronounced for family medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesiology and internal medicine.
Cambridge, like many other communities in the province, is seeing a rising need, says Donna Gravelle, a physician recruiter with the group Doctors 4 Cambridge.
“It’s probably not as big as other communities in Ontario … but we are short, according to the ministry, 10 to 12 family physicians,” Gravelle told CBC News.
Gravelle has helped organize ROMP week in Cambridge for more than 15 years and said it’s proven to be an effective recruitment program.
“We want them to think of Cambridge when they finally graduate,” she said. “And it has worked.”
But as they recruit new doctors, already established Cambridge doctors are retiring every year, Gravelle said.
“I have four retirements this year that I’m trying to fill right now. So instead of growing, getting extra docs, we’re just filling up the gaps right now,” Gravelle said.
“I’ve been in this job for quite a few years and this I’ve never seen as bad as now. “
Shadowing physicians
CBC K-W was allowed to tag along for a day to see what it looks like when Cambridge recruits doctors.
Students started out the day at Langs Community Health Centre where they spent the morning shadowing primary care physicians or family doctors.
“I saw a lot of interesting, diverse patients,” Khan said.
“[Langs] is a community health centre. So of course each patient has much more complex needs, so we spent a lot more time with them.”
Khan said that, originally, his career plans didn’t involve family medicine, but his experience in Cambridge has him reconsidering.
“Being here right now, it’s definitely giving me a growing impression on family medicine,” he said. “I want to keep an open mind.”
Selling Cambridge
After lunch, the students visited Langdon Hall, one of Cambridge’s most prestigious hotels and restaurants. The students were offered non-alcoholic peach bellinis and a tour of the grounds, including the historic map room and expansive culinary gardens.
The idea was to show students that life in a smaller community can go beyond just hospital hallways. Cambridge can offer luxury, leisure, and nature, too.
While Cambridge itself may not fit the common understanding of a “rural” area, surrounding areas like North Dumfries offer a quieter lifestyle and a different kind of medical practice.
It’s a stark contrast to what University of Toronto medical student Matt Hamilton is used to.
“As a University of Toronto student, we’re exposed mostly to downtown health centres,” said Hamilton, looking over the trees and hedges outside of the entrance to Langdon Hall’s gardens.
“So being able to come to more of a rural centre allows us to get exposure to a different patient population that we wouldn’t be able to see otherwise.”
Hamilton is attending school on a family medicine scholarship and said that’s where he wants his career to go. He said he likes how family medicine offers, “a different kind of relationship that you have with a patient rather than a lot of other specialties.”
Being able to see “everything and anything, at all ages” is what appeals most to him.
Playtime with a purpose
High winds meant a planned canoe trip down the Grand River had to be scrapped, so the final stop of the day was Activate, a neon-lit gaming facility built more for adults than children.
While its lasers and futuristic sounds are definitely fun, it’s still with the intent of recruiting doctors.
After spending so much time applying to medical schools and convincing the schools that they were worthy of attending, some students said it’s a nice change of pace when they’re the ones being wooed.
“It feels special, of course,” said University of Ottawa med student Ram Ahuja. “You feel wanted by the community and at the same time, we feel very grateful for this opportunity and that people want us to enter their communities.”
For Hamilton, it’s also a new feeling.
“It’s strange. It’s a unique experience for me,” he said. “I’ve never had anything like this, but it’s pretty interesting and I understand the reasoning behind it and I’d like to commend the city for doing it.”
The students finished the day with a pizza dinner and prepared for the next morning where they were set to shadow specialists at Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
But is it working?
Most of the students who took part in ROMP Week in Cambridge had just wrapped up their first year of medical school, so it’s a bit early for firm commitments.
Still, they were optimistic about what Cambridge offers: Proximity to the Greater Toronto Area, a mix of rural and urban life and skilled mentors.
“Definitely want to keep an open mind,” said Khan.
Mehar Johal, another student from the University of Ottawa, said the experience was eye-opening.
“I feel like because of how welcoming the environment has been, kind of taking on that role from a first person perspective, it’s really stood out to us and it made me consider it more,” Johal said. “I’m very much considering it after this week especially.”
For now, Cambridge is playing the long game. But with bellinis, mentorship, and some well-placed laser lights, it just might work.
