First-year medical students embark on Discovery Week across Southwestern Ontario

First-year medical students are about to experience the most important week of their careers during Discovery Week.

More than 170 first year undergraduate medical students are spending one week in 50 rural, regional and underserviced communities across southwestern Ontario, learning about real medicine, from doctors and nurses, and the entire community.  
Each student has the opportunity to take the knowledge they learned during the past nine months in the classroom, and translate it to the real world, in regions with diverse populations and equally diverse medical needs.

Discovery Week exposes students to the breadth of real-world medical experience and knowledge available outside tertiary health care centres providing them with a broad world view as they transition to practicing physicians.

Students will work alongside a wide range of health care providers including family physicians, nurse practitioners and chiropractors. Day-to-day, students learn in different environments, from emergency departments and specialist practices to family medicine clinics.

Dr. George Kim, assistant dean, Rural & Regional Community Engagement, who participated in the program, sees this as a pivotal week in the curriculum and one which will direct the course of each student’s career – from residency to where they will practice and live. “It’s an anchoring experience for our students,” said Kim. “There’s something about Discovery Week that resonates with our students and assists them in their decision-making processes throughout their undergraduate medical education experience. We have seen our students continue to reflect back, on the Week, positively as they decide what the future holds for them.”

Discovery Week showcases the incredible facilities available throughout southwestern Ontario and shows students what it’s like to live, learn and work in the region.    

Each student participates in one week of the program which takes place the weeks of May 25 and June 1.

Experience Discovery Week by watching the video here: https://youtu.be/4_fVRTlJK5o