Rural Medicine Interest Longitudinal Mentorship

This project connects medical students with rural physicians through a longitudinal mentorship model, fostering curiosity, career inspiration, and a sense of community belonging early in a student’s medical journey. The mentorships are informal, relational, and rooted in real-world insights—offering a valuable counterbalance to more structured medical training. As part of RCCbc’s broader rural generalism strategy, this initiative helps illuminate rural family medicine as a rewarding and socially impactful career path.

Drs. Jaeger Odyegov and Svetlana Hadikin

“Every time I attended one of the rural talks, I was reinvigorated to consider rural medicine. You finally won me over—I’m not applying to anything else.”

Fourth-year UBC medical student

Achievements

Extending Mentorship to the Southern Interior

In 2024, the project expanded to the Southern Medical Program in Kelowna, thanks to the leadership of Dr. Svetlana Hadikin (Castlegar) and Dr. Jaeger Odyegov (PGY1, Kootenay Boundary). Their involvement introduced the mentorship model to a new cohort of students in the Interior, expanding the geographic reach of the program and demonstrating the power of peer and near-peer mentorship in shaping early career decisions.

Sustaining Presence in Core Sites

In Prince George and Vancouver, where the program has run for several years, attendance has remained strong. These sessions offer consistent, meaningful engagement between learners and practicing rural physicians. For many students, this is their first opportunity to hear authentic stories about rural life, work, and training from people who live it every day.

Shaping Career Paths Through Relationship

While formal data is not yet collected, anecdotal feedback from students suggests the sessions are influential. Several learners have credited the mentorship evenings with influencing their Canadian Resident Matching Service decisions, shifting them toward rural generalist pathways. These moments echo what many mentors—like Dr. James Card, who began his own rural journey through UBC’s distributed training model—have long known: connection drives commitment.

Explore the numbers

20–30 students

attending each session in Kelowna (Southern Medical Program)

3 regional sites

active in 2024

3 active

physician mentors

Making a Difference

This mentorship initiative offers students exposure to rural medicine at a formative time in their training. By strengthening interest in rural family practice and generalism—particularly in communities where access remains a challenge—it supports long-term health equity goals. It also reflects the value of lived experience in medical education, and the importance of building lasting relationships between learners and communities.