Rural Focus

[MarsRover]

Hello,

 

 I am wondering if anyone currently attending MUN med can answer this for me. It seems from the website that there is a focus on rural medicine. I am just wondering if anyone attending can tell me how heavily this is emphasized. 

[NLengr]

When I went (albeit under the old curriculum since it changed a few years ago), it wasn't overly focused rurally unless you wanted it to be.

 

The pre-clerkship part included a rural family med rotation for a week in year 1. A similar two week family med rotation in second year could be rural or urban (St. John's, Saint John, Moncton etc.).

 

Clerkship used to require a month of rural family in 3rd year and a month of any rural family or specialty in 4th year. I think it's now 2 months in 3rd year and one in 4th.

 

Overall, the rural emphasis is largely variable. I did very few rural placements during my med school. Some people did a lot (by doing things like Obs/Gyne outside St. John's).

 

I wouldn't let te whole "rural focus" thing throw you. The main strength of the school is you will come out an excellent clinician. It's well known for producing excellent highly capable clinically able med students. In my experience they (and the prarie med schools) are far superior cleks on average than othe places in the country. I've seen it many times when we have med students rotating through on electives.