On Friday, November 7, over 310 students and teachers from 86 high schools across Manitoba spent their day sampling career options at the 8th annual Pfizer Canada Discovery Day in Health Sciences. The event is offered by The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in partnership with the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Medicine.
This year featured a record number of participants from Aboriginal schools and for the first time, francophone youth learning about health-related career opportunities in their first language.
“Discovery Days offers rural and urban high school students from across the Province an unparalleled introduction to career options within medicine and the other health sciences. It is one of the most effective ways for the University to expose the health professions to youth and ultimately will lead to more Manitobans pursuing careers in medicine, nursing, medical rehabilitation and research,” said Dr. J. Dean Sandham, Dean of Medicine, University of Manitoba.
To ensure this unique program is inclusive, the Faculty of Medicine contributes towards costs, including transportation for students and teachers from rural and remote communities to participate in Discovery Day – some from as far away as Churchill.
Keynote speakers from the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Anderson, Department of Community Health Sciences and Professor Pamela Wener, School of Medical Rehabilitation kicked the day off at the Brodie Centre with their respective lectures “Medicine's Open Doors” and “The Health Care Team in the 21st Century”. From there, the students dispersed to hands-on workshops delivered by some of Canada’s brightest scientific minds in their labs, classrooms, the Clinical Learning and Simulation Facility and hospital settings.
Students discovered what it’s like to enjoy a career in science. They chose two workshops from a total of 29 including the following:
Neurosurgery with the Gamma Knife where students saw how brain tumours and other abnormalities of the brain are treated with beams of radiation.
A Day in the Life of a Family Doctor where students received basic training on how to suture a wound, read x-rays, and perform a delivery and colonoscopy using simulators and models in the new Clinical Learning and Simulation Facility.
Spinal Instrumentation where students inserted spine implants (screw, rods, hooks) into lumbar spine models and found out how spinal instrumentation is used to reconstruct the spine.
Le médecin de famille – l’homme ou femme à tout faire. Le médecin de famille, c’est souvent le premier contact avec notre système de sante - c’est un généraliste par excellence. Venez apprendre ce qu’ils et elles font dans leur travail, venez manipuler les instruments qu’ils utilisent à tout les jours.
Discovery Day wrapped up with a lively career panel discussion where students had the opportunity to ask health care professionals about their work – how they achieved their goals to date and what drives them to continue.
“Results show that Discovery Day participants are more interested, excited and informed about a career in health sciences after attending these one-day events. It’s rewarding to know we are offering a program that is helping to address some of the issues related to Canada’s critical shortage of health professionals,” says Janet Tufts, Executive Director of The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame offers Discovery Days at eight universities and colleges across the country involving over 1500 students every year. There was no cost to participate thanks to the generous support of the program’s national sponsors, Pfizer Canada, Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life, and CIHR’s Youth Synapse program, as well as many local sponsors.
