It was a chance for medical students to get a hands-on feel for rural medicine.
Quickly becoming a tradition at Groves Memorial Community Hospital, Rural Medicine Day is now in its sixth year and involves dozens of students from first year medical students from McMaster University and local high schools.
This year, the event hosted about 25 students.
For the hospital, the day is an important recruitment initiative as it allows staff and volunteers to showcase and highlight the many features of the Fergus and Elora area and demonstrate some of the perks to practicing medicine in a rural area.
When Rural Medicine Day began, the hospital had a waiting list of over 2,000 for people seeking a family doctor. A few years ago, after successful recruiting, the list no longer exists.
Rural Medicine Days at Groves in the past have been successful in that many participants return to complete electives or even longer residencies in the area.
One of of those individuals is Lianne Finn, a resident doctor working at Groves, through a practice in Elora.
Originally from Toronto, Finn took the tour of Groves a few years ago.
She said she immediately “fell in love with the area.”
As a result, Finn chose Fergus as the hospital to do her residence.
Lauren Bonder, a second year student at McMaster University took the tour last year and chose to come back again this year for another look.
