Some high school students in the Grande Prairie area have had more exposure to the possibilities of a rural medical career than they would normally get. Jared Bly, first-year RAN Family Medicine Resident and Beth Zazula, Career Transition for Youth, recently traveled to rural schools to talk with students about a possible career in rural medicine. They hope they have planted seeds that will take root as these students think about their future career options.

The project got started when a high school student got in touch with Bly and asked if she could look around the local hospital. Though it sounded like a simple request, Bly found it was not because there was no process in place to make it happen easily. Bly realized that there were a lot of people who were willing to talk about their health careers and to show students around.

Jared teamed up with Beth Zazula to make a Power Point presentation about a career in rural medicine. He and Zazula then made presentations to six high schools (two in Grande Prairie, and Beaverlodge, Sexsmith, Ridge Valley and Spirit River).

From the presentations, Bly and Zazula learned that many of the students wanted to go into rural health professions but not necessarily medicine. "As residents," says Bly, "we often talk about how we can get people into rural family medicine. I've come to realize that the big thing is to get rural people into rural medicine because they are more likely to go back to work in small towns if they're from a small town. We need to give rural kids exposure to rural health careers so that maybe down the road they consider that option."

Reaction to the presentations has been positive. Students seem to really enjoy the game show format - especially the candy that is dispensed with questions based on the presentation! Teachers and principals have also provided a lot of positive feedback.
Bly and Zazula have completed an evaluation of what was learned from the project and from questionnaires completed by students.