Halfway through med school: the journey continues

*Two years ago, we introduced you to medical student Sydney Ford in “An Islander’s Journey to Medicine” and we’ve been following her medical journey ever since. Sydney last shared her hopes for her second year and is now entering her third year at Memorial University.

The pressure is on for third-year medical student Sydney Ford. Over the next ten months, she will be exposed to several medical specialties and expected to narrow down her scope, deciding what kind of physician she wants to be.

“Any decision that involves what you’re going to do with your future is scary,” Sydney said. “I’m really proud of myself to have gotten this far—at the halfway point in med school—and despite how daunting the decision is to choose a specialty, I’m excited about the next two years.”

Sydney is enrolled in a four-year Doctor of Medicine (MD) program at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). There are approximately 80 students in her class, including four from PEI. As she enters her third year this month, she’ll start clerkship with a small portion of her classmates, rotating through six specialties: pediatrics, family medicine, surgery, internal medicine, psychiatry, and obstetrics and gynecology. The rotations are chosen for the students at this stage in their training to expose them to a wide variety of core specialties. In their final year, they’ll be able to choose from a number of electives or other specialties they wish to try.

Sydney’s lifelong dream is to become a doctor, and while she’s achieving that, she says she didn’t anticipate it being so difficult to choose her specialty.

“I am a little surprised at this stage that I still don’t know what I want to do, but I think it’s pretty normal to still be unsure,” she said. “Honestly, I have really enjoyed all the units we’ve done so far and everything I’ve been exposed to has been really interesting. I’m grateful for the experience, and I think the next two years will be enlightening.”

Sydney will start her clerkship in Newfoundland, but once she starts the family medicine rotation, she’ll be stationed on PEI. She’ll also do part of her surgery rotation on the Island.

“These rotations mean we’re actually working on the floor, seeing real patients, and coming up with management plans,” she said. “It’s heavily guided, of course, by the resident doctors and those in staff positions, but we’ll be learning by doing. People don’t apply for medicine to sit in a classroom; they want to be helping people. This is my chance to actually do the job I’ve been wanting to do.”

The second year of medical school has prepared Sydney for this moment. The students conducted many physical exams and worked on mannequins to practice inserting IVs, putting on a cast, inserting EG tubes, and running trauma or cardiac codes, among other things. Sydney also participated in a two-week placement in family medicine—known as the Black Bag Rotation—where she worked alongside Dr. Maggie McNally at the Parkdale Medical Clinic in Charlottetown, PEI.

“A lot of what we learn in the first two years is with patient actors, so the placement was exciting because I was actually with patients,” Sydney said. “My placement couldn’t have been better; Dr. McNally was an enthusiastic teacher and always willing to answer my questions or give me advice. I also got to work with a speech language pathologist who does gender-affirming care, helping with the masculinity or femininity of the voices of those who have transitioned. It was really cool and an aspect of gender-affirming care I hadn’t thought of before.”

By her fourth year of medical school, Sydney will need to apply for medical residency through the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS), the national organization that provides the mandatory matching service for medical residency training throughout Canada.

“I can’t believe how fast these last two years have gone by. It feels like it’s speeding up. It is a bit daunting to be moving out of the classroom and seeing real patients. My Black Bag Rotation was the first real taste of that, but if that was a little dip in the pool, clerkship is getting right into the deep end. It’s sink or swim now. The pressure is on!”

Sydney is staying positive, but she admits there have been times over the last two years where she’s felt “beaten down.” There has been some negativity in the media about the state of the healthcare system and she sometimes worries about what she’s getting herself into.

“When you hear that your dream job is a challenging place to work right now, it’s hard because you’re putting blood, sweat and tears into preparing for that job. That said, I think people are seeing the flaws in the system and what needs to change to reduce burnout and improve retention and the health of our physicians and allied health professionals in Canada,” Sydney said. “Noticing the problem is the first step to fixing it. I think we’re moving towards change and I am going to play a role in the future of medicine, so I hope to be part of that change. I know there will be bad days—and it’s important to acknowledge that in any career—but I know challenges will make me a better doctor in the end.”

For now, Sydney is going to focus on soaking up everything she can in her hands-on training in her third year. She’s planning to talk with the physicians she’ll be working with in hopes of understanding the day-to-day of their field so she can further narrow down her scope.

“I feel very strongly that I’m where I’m meant to be,” Sydney said. “I’m grateful for the experiences I’ve had so far and the ones before me. This transition from pre-clerkship to clerkship is huge and I’m excited for all that comes next.”

Do you know someone interested in a career in medicine? Check out our pathway to medicine here https://www.mspei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Path-To-Medicine.pdf

Connect with the PEI recruitment team here: https://physiciancareerspei.ca/contact/