Future physicians enjoy visit to Estevan and its hospital

ESTEVAN - For the first time in three years, the Saskatchewan Medical Association’s Road Map Tour hit the road, and its first stop was in Estevan.

The Road Map Tour takes medical students from the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine to rural communities across the province. Thirty-four students were in Estevan to see some of what the city and St. Joseph’s Hospital have to offer.

The vast majority of them were first and second-year students, but there was one fourth year, Lucas King, who lived in Estevan in 2012.

“We’ve been in Estevan before, and Estevan has been an excellent host for us,” said Delilah Cerniuk, the community engagement co-ordinator with the SMA.

Estevan also has a student learning here through the longitudinal integrated clerkship program. It’s a priority for the tour to ensure students are well aware of some of the training programs available, Cerniuk said.

“We want to make sure that this year the program is filled up,” said Cerniuk. “Present date, we only filled one of two seats this year. It might have something to do with the pandemic.”

Estevan has been a good stop in the past, Cerniuk said, as the city has a full-scope practice at the hospital, lots of great physicians and a great location. The students have a great time whenever they come, too.

While in Estevan, the students checked out the baseball and golf simulators at Global Golf Plus in the Estevan Market Mall, which she said the students really enjoyed.

“It was great to see that what they typically would be doing outdoors, and they can’t now, they can do it indoors, and it gave them an opportunity to socialize with each other,” said Cerniuk.

They also had a look inside St. Joseph’s Hospital, enjoyed a guided bus tour of Estevan with hospital executive director Greg Hoffort and administrative co-ordinator Kristin Dupuis; and participated in a physician panel with eight local medical doctors and the LIC student at the Western Star All Suites Signature Hotel, allowing them to get to know the doctors.

Cerniuk said the road map has been going on for nearly 12 years. Over the years, the exposure to rural communities has encouraged students to choose to train in communities like this in the long term.

“Some communities are more fortunate than others, but as we continue on year after year, exposing them to all these different communities, our hopes are that some of these students will end up being doctors in these communities,” said Cerniuk.

King lived in Estevan after graduating high school. He worked for his uncle Harvey King at PS Electric, realized he wasn’t cut out to be an oilfield electrician, and worked for Audio Video Unlimited (now BrandSource). He enjoyed his time in the community, and still has family in Estevan and the southeast.

“It’s fun coming back here,” said King. “We come here for holidays every once in a while with my family, but it’s nice being back in the community and seeing things from a different perspective now that I’ve been through different rotations.”

He was impressed with the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation clinic inside the hospital and the different services the hospital has to provide.

This marked the first time King has been in St. Joe’s.

King enlisted with the Canadian Armed Forces about a year and a half ago, and will be serving with the military for at least four years after residency. Then he expects to shift to family medicine

“I took a really roundabout path to medicine. I started as a personal trainer and then continued into some other healthcare professional areas. I actually went to chiropractic school for a while, and I ended up in medicine just because I wanted to be able to do more, I wanted to have broader scope and to work with more people and to be able to provide more to them.”

King said he wants to eventually work in rural Saskatchewan, so he wanted to see the hospital from the perspective of a student.