Young doctors train in Moncton
And now, residents of this province can complete med school right here
As a youngster growing up in Grande-Digue, Stéphanie Melanson wasn't sure what she wanted to pursue for her career -- after all, who really knows as a teenager what they want to do with the rest of their life.
After a particularly interesting biology class, though, during her tenure at Shediac's Louis-J. Robichaud High School, her fate was sealed. She wanted to pursue medicine. Family medicine in particular.
Today, she's Dr. Stéphanie Melanson, with a family practice on Main Street in Shediac.
While becoming a doctor is indeed a lofty goal, with today's doctor shortage, the opportunities are endless, Melanson says, though you'll have to work hard for several years to attain your goal.
"At first I wasn't really sure, but if that's your dream, keep on going towards your goal," Melanson, 26, advises those thinking about it.
It's not easy by any means. Ideally, you'll start down that path while still in high school.
"I was always a freak for science," Melanson notes of her own teen years.
"I had really good preparation in high school."
That preparation involved loading up on science courses, the most advanced ones she could take, plus advanced mathematics.
"So then once I got to university, I was really well prepared."
That preparation served her well during her first year in university. Come the second year, though, it was all new to her and thus was quite difficult indeed.
"Then I got in at Université de Sherbrooke and did my four years there."
Sherbrooke now offers its French-language medical school training here in Moncton, via the Université de Moncton and the Dr. Georges-L. Dumont Regional Hospital.
While Melanson actually attended Sherbrooke, medical students can now take the exact same course right here in Moncton, an important leap forward for training New Brunswick doctors who want their schooling in the French language.
This is not your typical med school with a professor lecturing from a podium.
Instead, students are grouped by eight or 10, with a professor to guide them, and are given medical cases to diagnose. Then they have to report to their group what they've discovered and what they've learned from it.
There are also more traditional courses that a prospective doctor must take.
This kind of problem-based learning has proven highly effective in sharpening young doctors' medical minds, with instant feedback from their peers and their professors.
Following about two and one-half years, med students then do their clerkship, where you do actual rotations in real medical settings, with hands-on experience with real patients, overseen by a resident, for about a year and one-half, after which you apply for your residency in whatever discipline you are pursuing, be it surgery, family medicine or whatever.
The term "residency" means you are actually training on the job, with oversight by experienced doctors of course.
After your first year as a resident, "you are basically on your own, though at the end of each day you discuss your cases with your preceptor."
Following all of that, you take your national medical exams, followed by exams for whatever speciality you are pursuing.
Yes, it's a long process. It's expensive, too, Melanson confirms, with students graduating with heavy debt loads, though loans for student doctors are not difficult to get.
"You get by," she says.
Melanson is living her dream in family medicine.
She loves how she can get to intimately know her patients and relishes the challenges presented by a massive variety of cases every day.
"Nothing is ever the same from one day to the next," she says. "I was attracted to it by the diversity of the problems in family medicine."
Family doctors can also specialize in other disciplines, so Melanson is quite certain she is not finished studying yet.
For those who have always wanted to pursue a future in medicine, Melanson offers this advice: follow your dreams.
"With determination and courage, you can do anything."
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