NMP graduates 31 new doctors

“We are starting to see some consistency in the numbers and the areas where the students are starting to practice,” explains Dr. Sarah Gray, the NMP’s Assistant Dean of Education. “So while there is that diversity within each class, we do see for example about 50 to 60 percent of our students choosing family medicine. We do get a large percentage of our students choosing general specialties and then we do see some students going off into quite specific sub-specialties as we’ve seen in this class as well.”

The Northern Medical Program was borne all those years ago from a fight Northerns had with Victoria in 2000 over the lack of medical professionals. The program is based on the premise “Train in the North, Stay in the North” and, with roughly eight years of data, that strategy has shown success.

“We do have an accumulation of data. So currently we have about eight years’ worth of data where students have finished their residency training. And we do see about 65 percent of those students practicing in rural areas and we see 25 to 30 percent of those students practicing within the Northern region of the province.”

While Hatcher is raised in Prince George, she plans to do the rest of her training in Fort St. John. But she admits to leaning on the local medical community a lot.

“I’ve pretty much learned everything I’ve learned from the doctors here and the doctors in the rural communities where I was able to do rotations. As students, we really lean on them not only to learn those basic skills but also to better understand how they overcome some of the challenges of being in a Northern area and the limitations of not having every specialist available.”

The formal graduation ceremony will take place next month at UBC.

by Cheryl Jahn

NMP graduates 31 new doctors

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