Summer PREP

Two weeks after writing the last final of year two and I can feel myself transitioning from finals-mode into summer-mode. Finals season is a stressful time, no doubt, but it’s also a rewarding time. It feels good when the long hours of studying are paying off and you realize how far you’ve come since day one. Personally, I like to shake off the stress of finals by taking a long nap and then celebrating with my classmates.

With the end of year two comes the end of classroom-based learning and the beginning of my last summer holidays. For my last summer, I am spending six weeks doing PREP in Melfort, three weeks doing a Reproductive Health Externship, and the remaining weeks relaxing, getting myself ready for my first JURSI rotation, and enjoying the summer sun.

PREP is a program that pairs second year students with a rural family doctor so that we can get a taste of what rural Saskatchewan practice has to offer as well as getting to work one on one with a physician and practice our clinical skills. I’m having my PREP experience in Melfort, and after one and a half weeks, I can already tell that I am going to love it here.

The doctors here in Melfort are all so kind, welcoming, and are great teachers. I’ve gotten to see patients, take their histories, perform physical exams, and give the occasional injection. Because I am in a family clinic, patients who come in are of all ages and all demographics. This is one of the reasons that I think family medicine is so great; you get such a wide variety of patients so there’s an incredibly broad scope of practice.

I don’t know what the next five weeks in Melfort have in store for me, but I am looking forward to finding out!