Rural doctors mentor medical students in U of C program

Dozens of Alberta communities are in
need of doctors. (CBC)

A group of University of Calgary medical students will begin a nine-month clerkship in nearly a dozen small Alberta towns this week as part of a program aimed at tackling the rural doctor shortage.

The program sees doctors in training sent to small communities where they are mentored by rural physicians and encouraged to consider starting their medical practice there.

More than 30 Alberta communities have a critical doctor shortage.

Dr. Peter McKernan, who mentors students at a clinic in the Crowsnest Pass, said he's starting to see graduates returning for work.

"I'm trying to show them a life they may want to live and in the last couple of years several of our residents have bought that idea and they've joined us,” said Mckernan.

- CBC News