(originally published in Cambridge Today on June 6, 2025 by Matt Betts)
Nine medical students from the University of Ottawa and University of Toronto have spent the past five days seeing what the City of Cambridge has to offer upon graduation.
The initiative, known as Rural Ontario Medical Program Week, allows students to tour the city and participate in various hands-on experiences with family physicians and within the Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
As part of the schedule, they visited city hall and Langdon Hall, shadowed doctors and participated in a suture clinic at CMH.
Julianna Botros, a medical student at the University of Ottawa, said getting to see what it's like in the field is critical to being comfortable with what to expect.
"I had the opportunity to be in a family clinic and in emergency for two days, both those experiences were really good," Botros said.
"I felt like I had really good physicians who were good teachers. Any exposure to clinical experience early on is good."
Throughout the week, Botros also saw some of the softer skills needed to be a successful physician.
Dealing with patients who are often in distress, she was able to witness how doctors and nurses work to ease anxieties and frustrations.
"I think it's how important communication is when working in a team." she said of what she learned.
"Seeing how important dynamics is with patient interaction. We're always told we have to have compassion, we have to be kind. These patients are waiting a very long time. Right now the wait times in Canada are very poor. Those dynamics are really important for me to see as a medical student to see how I want to interact with patients."
As the city continues to grapple with a doctor shortage, the week serves as an important recruiting tool.
Donna Gravelle, a physician recruiter for Doctors4Cambridge, has been involved with ROMP Week for several years and said it's paid off. She points to 2017 when three of those visiting students eventually made their way back to the city to practice full-time.
"It's gone well, we've had some fun times and we've had a lot of clinical time," Gravelle said of this year's group.
"They've seen some interesting cases, learned a lot that they haven't done before. It's been a good week."
Gravelle emphasized the importance of all levels of recruiting, from finding experienced physicians to engaging students, in solving the shortage.
It's believed the city needs to bring in approximately 10 family doctors in order to meet the requirements of the population.
"You have to start at every level to get physicians interested in your community," Gravelle said.
"In this case, these students have never been to Cambridge before. It gives them exposure, they get to know this is a really cool place to live and work. They think about it."
And it certainly made an impression on Botros.
"I really like Cambridge," she said.
"The city is beautiful. It was nice to speak to doctors who had different routes to how they ended up working here."