Reflecting on the PREP program

My days in Lanigan were mostly spent at the family medicine clinic seeing patients. However, once a month, my supervising doctor completes minor procedures in the hospitals OR. This involved liquid nitrogen treatments – because they do not have liquid nitrogen available to them in the family medicine clinic. It also included excisional biopsies and abscess drainage.

It was interesting because this came at the end of the month and many of the patients that we were seeing for their procedure we had examined earlier in the month in the clinic.

The month timeline of the PREP program did allow for me to see continuity of care in action as many patients we saw earlier in the month returned for follow-up near the end of the month. This made it interesting to see how our management had worked with time for these patients and to help plan next steps in their care plan.   

After completing the PREP program, my advice to future students considering the program is to know why you want to sign up for the program and try to work in a community that will align with those goals.

For example, if you are interested in rural practice that also incorporates labour and delivery in the community – make sure your community delivers babies.

Regardless of where you choose to take part in the PREP program, you will learn a lot about the difference between urban and rural practice.

Another takeaway for me from the PREP program was that it provided me a chance to explore more of Saskatchewan –particularly since the bulk of my medical education is in Saskatoon.

It was a great opportunity to take part in this program and to share a taste of it with you on #MyMD blog.

If you want to learn more about the PREP program, you can visit this webpage: https://www.sma.sk.ca/programs/73/prep.html

That’s all for now!

-Kate

Read part one of Kate's PREP experience.

Read part two of Kate's PREP experience.