Temiskaming Hospital continues to welcome learners from various departments of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
Each year 5 senior medical students move to Temiskaming Shores for 8 months to complete their Comprehensive Community Clerkship (CCC). While here, the students spend the majority of their time at Temiskaming Hospital and in the clinics of our local family physicians. They also spend time with our specialist physicians, and with many allied health professionals such as our physiotherapists, dentists, optometrists and dieticians. With integrated experiences in rural and northern communities, medical students are able to experience first hand the challenges and rewards of rural medicine. Many students who complete CCC years in smaller communities go on to choose careers in rural family medicine, a decision that benefits us all!
In addition to our medical students, we have recently had the pleasure of training full time Family Medicine Residents from NOSM. These are doctors who have completed medical school but are not yet eligible to practice medicine independently. The “residency” years are similar to an apprenticeship in other fields, where students have a chance to put their years of study to work while becoming competent, independent physicians.
To support the medical learners while here, a Local NOSM Group (LNG) was created and currently has a mix of members from the community and our health care providers including our Family Health Teams. This group acts as an important link between the community and our learners to ensure they have a smooth integration into Temiskaming Shores and a positive experience while here. NOSM’s current Dean of Medicine, Dr. Roger Strasser recognizes the importance of the people and communities of Northern Ontario to the success of NOSM’s program. “The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is committed to building partnerships with the communities and health organizations of Northern Ontario. The Temiskaming Hospital, local physicians, other healthcare providers and other community members are welcomed partners”, he says. To strengthen this relationship, Temiskaming Hospital and NOSM have recently resigned an affiliation agreement that allows NOSM students of all levels to continue to gain valuable hands-on practical medical experience. This agreement also supports measures to ensure local physicians receive quality continuing medical education which leads to improvement in quality of the health care that is delivered locally.
Other NOSM programs that Temiskaming Hospital serves as a training site for include the physiotherapy and dietetic programs.
We at Temiskaming Hospital are proud of our relationship with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. This organization is a pioneering faculty for training in rural medicine and related fields. The School is a joint initiative of Lakehead and Laurentian Universities with main campuses in Thunder Bay and Sudbury, and multiple teaching and research sites across Northern Ontario. By educating skilled physicians and undertaking health research focused on rural and northern communities, the School has become a cornerstone of community health care in Northern Ontario.