Moose Deer Point youth to attend Northern Ontario School of Medicine in fall of 2021

By Rick Garrick

MOOSE DEER POINT — Moose Deer Point’s Chloe Smith looks forward to attending the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) this fall after developing an interest in studying medicine when she was in public school.

“It’s just been something I’ve always wanted to do,” says Smith, a York University Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Global Health graduate. “A lot of my teachers growing up have always known this is what I’ve wanted to go into since public school; however, I think my first interest was sparked when I was younger — I was in and out of Sick Kids (Hospital for Sick Children) around age 11.”

Smith says she has since developed more of an interest in medicine, specifically looking at Indigenous health because of the health inequities Indigenous people face.

“Being at Sick Kids at a young age I didn’t really understand why we had to travel that far and why maybe my mom was stressed out due to the travel, et cetera,” Smith says. “So I started to look more and more into the inequities that Indigenous populations face, such as geographic barriers, and that just really sparked an interest.”

Smith says she chose to study at NOSM because of its curriculum and social accountability mandate.

“They have a really good curriculum that focuses on Indigenous health and also the various health inequities that are faced in northern and rural communities,” Smith says. “I knew that I wanted to one day practice in Northern Ontario and hopefully practice maybe within Indigenous communities or at least within the population.”

Smith also stressed the community placements that NOSM provides for the students, such as the compulsory four-week placement in an Indigenous community during the first year of study, as another reason for choosing NOSM.

“Hands-on learning is something that I think I’ll really need especially after the last two years of online school,” Smith says. “So I’m looking forward to it.”

Smith says she was first introduced to NOSM’s CampMed summer health sciences camp for high school students in 2015.

“This was where my interest in medicine really kind of sparked around this time,” Smith says. “I had applied to it and then I got to go and spend a week on campus with various medical students and faculty and staff. Basically, it was just like a complete week of summer camp but it was all medicine. We had lectures, we got to learn how to make casts, just a bunch of stuff like that.”

Smith says she also worked as a summer student at the West Parry Sound Health Centre through NOSM’s Summer Studentship Program.

“Although I wasn’t right involved with NOSM, it was still a really great experience,” Smith says. “My last major involvement directly with NOSM was this past summer where I had the opportunity to volunteer to be a camp counsellor for the same summer camp that I went to some years back. Although it was online, it was still great — I got to work virtually with some other university students.”

Smith’s future goals are to work in emergency medicine or family medicine in Northern Ontario.

“At the West Parry Sound Health Centre, I shadowed alongside a doctor and I really enjoyed that because when you’re in the emergency room, you can see five different types of patients presenting all different things,” Smith says. “I hope to have a career where I’ll constantly be on my feet, have those busy days and get to see a variety of different things and always be learning and growing as a doctor.”