Fifteen students in Grades 10, 11 and 12 from small towns around the Lethbridge area took part in a job shadowing experience on 23 November 2005 organized by Gail Vandebeek, Career Development Advisor with Career Transitions and Rural Alberta South resident Dr. Mal Kaminska. This half-day experience was meant to expose these rural high school students to rural medicine and to give them some idea of the path they would need to follow to become an MD.  Students raised in rural areas are more likely to return to practise in rural areas once their training is complete.

Kaminska describes the five activities of the interactive half-day:

• Following introductions, students saw a PowerPoint presentation on the educational requirements to reach residency and a full MD license and what students could do during high school to better develop themselves as a "well-rounded" person, and prepare for undergraduate studies.  Also discussed was which programs to go into, and when and how to apply for Med School (i.e., they need to write the MCAT, etc).  Students asked many questions pertaining to medical school proper: what kind of classes there are, the costs associated with a medical education, lifestyle issues, etc.  And finally, a bit of time was spent on residency and the different choices that there are (specialist vs. GP, and then within GP the difference between rural and urban doctors);
  
• The next activity was a visit to the Lethbridge Hospital Laboratory where the students saw how histological slides of biopsy samples are prepared.  They even got to look at a few cancerous cells under the microscope and see how routine blood tests are processed.  Students spent a bit of time looking through microscopes at different kinds of blood cells before looking at the blood bank and understanding how blood is crossed and matched for blood transfusions;
  
• The third activity was a visit to the Lethbridge Hospital Regional Dialysis Unit where the group observed real patients as they underwent hemo- and periotoneal dialysis.  A nurse provided an excellent presentation about the two types of dialysis, and the surgeries that are involved in the set-up of it.  Students got to handle, touch, and "play with" the filters used in dialysis machines and the tubing and needles that are used with these patients;
  
• The fourth activity consisted of a series of X-rays where the students got to identify body parts, fractures, heart problems, bowel obstructions, etc.; and
  
• Finally, students had a chance to cast someone else's thumb and then take their casts home as souvenirs.

Throughout the morning, the students were encouraged to ask a lot of questions.  Some expressed interest in becoming rural doctors or lab techs and all seemed to really enjoy the morning.