To say that the past year has not gone according to plan for Paige Baldwin and Brianna Hutchinson would be an understatement.
The two third-year students from the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan were slated to spend a year at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Estevan through the longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC), learning all that they could about different aspects of medicine from the dedicated local medical team.
They started working at the hospital last summer, and they’ll finish up the program on July 31.
But the COVID-19 pandemic caused them to lose two months out of the time they would have spent locally. Still, they were able to learn a lot, and will leave Estevan with an abundance of memories about their time here.
“I don’t know if I could have asked for a better third year and a better introduction into the clinical world of medicine,” Hutchinson told the Mercury. “It’s had its ups and downs, of course. I think like any student or medical students would tell you, it can be quite a transition to go from in the classroom every day to now being in the hospital and on the wards.”
Baldwin said she met a lot of great people who are great at their jobs.
“I think every department has something interesting to offer,” she said. “Some of my most exciting cases were in the emergency room, and then the obstetrical unit – maternity unit – has lots of exciting things to offer as well.”
The emergency room and obstetrics are two areas of medicine that are of interest to her. Baldwin wants to enter rural family medicine once she finishes her training, and she’s looking at an extra year of studies in surgery and obstetrics.
Hutchinson said she has noticed how she has been able to learn while surrounded by the same people each day.
“I’ve really gotten to like and enjoy getting to know the staff at St. Joe’s, and at the clinics we work at, so it’s been really nice to get to know them and to develop my skills alongside them, and not only to see those improvements in myself, but to share those with the people that I work with has been the best part of it so far,” said Hutchinson.
This past year has taught her to be flexible, open to new experiences and open-minded with the people she will encounter in the healthcare system.
“We are not doing the same thing everyday,” Hutchinson said. “We are doing different things, whether it’s in the ER or in the clinics or in the ward or in the surgery suites.”
Once COVID-19 hit Saskatchewan in mid-March, Baldwin and Hutchinson had two months off while the university decided their next steps. After Hutchinson and Baldwin returned to St. Joe’s, there was less for them to do, because they weren’t allowed to be with patients who were potential or suspected cases.
“Even people who had been swabbed and we weren’t expecting it to be positive, we still had to wait for the swabs to come back,” said Baldwin.
Most of the family medicine clinic sessions have been through a phone call, so they had to learn how to do phone consultations.
“It’s a lot harder to evaluate a patient over the phone, because you can’t see them, you can’t set your hands on them to do physical exams, and you have to be a lot clearer about the questions you’re asking in order to figure out what’s going on,” said Baldwin.
Hutchinson said it was good to get back to the hospital for the last couple of months of the clerkship, and it’s been unique to learn and see how people are adapting to their practice.
“It’s a unique experience as a student to learn some of those skills that can’t be taught by reading a textbook,” said Hutchinson. “All of those leadership skills and advocacy skills and administrative skills that are very, very important for being a physician that we can’t really learn by reading a book.”
It’s been good to see how their preceptors, teachers and colleagues have adapted during the past two months.
When they were pulled from the hospital in March, Hutchinson thought their time at St. Joseph’s might be over. At the time, their year was nearly two-thirds complete.
“I was sad, and just a little bit upset that maybe I wouldn’t really get that chance to still work with each doctor one last time, or go in the OR one more time, or maybe have a bit of a good-bye celebration, and actually just celebrate the year that we’ve had here,” she said.
But it has been good to be back and finish the year.
While they were away from St. Joe’s, Baldwin and Hutchinson tackled assignments and paperwork at home, and they participated in online lectures. Their classmates in the medical program at the U of S still had the lectures, but not as many assignments, as they can only do the assignments within their rotation.
The two future physicians said they would recommend the LIC experience to other students at the University of Saskatchewan. Baldwin said it has allowed them to learn all of the different areas of medicine over an extended period of time, rather than having to stay within one box for a short period of time.
And Baldwin said she would recommend St. Joseph’s to her colleagues.
“It’s a beautiful hospital, and there’s great people, good supports, and the teachers here are very supportive and helpful,” Hutchinson said.
Regardless of their specialty, Hutchinson said the LIC experience will help shape them into well-rounded people and physicians.
Baldwin will return to Saskatoon to wrap up her third year of studies, and then she will do her fourth year with electives, in which she can pick any specialty she wants. Before COVID, they would have been able to go anywhere in the country, but now their options are limited to Saskatchewan.
Hutchinson said she has some third-year rotations to finish in September and October that she can’t do in Estevan, because they’re more specialized, and then she’ll finish up her third year.
The third year for both students has been extended into November.
The LIC program will continue at St. Joe’s for the 2020-21 year, with another physician in the making arriving in Estevan soon.
