A chance meeting with RPAP representatives at an Alberta high school has launched a potential new working relationship between East Central Health (ECH) and RPAP.

Similar to RPAP's initiatives aimed at interesting rural students in medical education, ECH's Tammy Syrnyk, Operations Coordinator, is developing a pool of local students who are interested in health careers.

ECH, like most rural health organizations, faces an ongoing challenge finding local students who are interested in health careers and who will return to the region to practice after they graduate.  Students trained in the larger urban centres often choose to remain there.  To address this issue, ECH began working with Careers: The Next Generation program about four years ago.  This industry-driven public/private partnership is dedicated to the career development of Alberta youth in order to provide a continuous supply of skilled and motivated people to meet industry needs.  Careers provides Grade 11 and 12 students with six-week summer work experiences that count as high school credits.

 And while Careers is a great program, Syrnyk says that "there was a fear that disconnecting from the student while they were pursing their health-related careers would not foster a mentoring relationship and the continued support that the students may greatly benefit from.  We wanted to find a way to encourage them to continue to come back to our rural region."  What ECH did was to develop a new program aimed at former Careers graduates who are pursuing health careers at the post-secondary level. Through the East Central Health Opportunities (ECHO) program, Careers graduates are eligible to apply for 12 weeks of employment in a summer internship program.  

"We interview them to find out what field they are studying," says Syrynk. "If it's pharmacy, for instance, I would find a pharmacist nearest to the students home base who could support and mentor the student for a 12-week employment opportunity.  In addition to the employment experience the students gain over the summer, Syrnyk also connects ECHO students all over the health region via Telehealth every second week for a few hours each time.  Guest speakers and information sessions are provided on everything from how the health region and individual departments operate, to public speaking skills (based on Toastmasters) and specifics like infection prevention control.  Because students are from across many disciplines, we always have round table discussions about what they are doing in their new environments. This assists the students to understand the importance of collaborating and relationship building with a multitude of different health care disciplines. Students could potentially come back every year until the end of their health care training when it is hoped they will be recruited to permanent positions in the health region."

Every year Syrnyk gives the ECHO students an assignment.  This year, because 2005 was the 100th anniversary of organized medicine in the province, the topic was to do some research over the past 100 years and to find a local health care hero. "The students did a wonderful job," says Syrnyk, "They spoke with our regional health care providers and went to libraries and suddenly we had all kinds of people across the region involved in the projects. Students presented findings to senior ECH leaders and Board members.  It was amazing what the students learned.  This assignment assisted our students in making the realization that what we do today to sustain our health care systems will have an impact 100 years from now."

And what results is ECHO producing?  "The program has been running for two years. Applications are coming in and students are interested in coming back to our region.  We continue to battle, however, against other opportunities students may have that provide higher wages.  Through ECHO, we're developing dynamic individuals who will be managing our health care systems of the future.  It gives us a sense of hope to see that the students have a greater understanding of our present systems and what it will take to sustain them,"`concludes Syrnyk.

While it is yet to be determined how RPAP and Syrnyk at ECH will work together in the future, the two organizations are investigating to see how they can support one another.