The Niagara Falls Health Professional Recruitment and Retention Task Force and the Greater Niagara General Hospital partnered to once again host Rural Medicine Week earlier this month, bringing 10 first- and second-year medical students from the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa to the city for a week of on-the-job training.

Each year the Rural Ontario Medical Program encourages under-serviced communities, such as Niagara Falls, to host med students in order to give them a snapshot of what it's like to practice medicine in the community. The students took part in a variety of organized clinical rotations and workshops, including suturing pigs feet, which closely resembles human flesh, and fitting each other with casts. The students also learned about several specialties on a one-to-one basis with physicians.

The students have to apply for the program and successful weeks in 2004, 2005 and 2007 have made the city a top choice.

More than 30 family doctors, specialists and other health professionals volunteered their time to act as instructors over the week while the committee coordinated events so students could become aware of the many things which make Niagara Falls a great place to live.

"We are pleased to be hosting 10 medical students this year and we hope to encourage them to consider our city as a place to set up their practice when they complete their training," said Mayor Ted Salci. "I have had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with medical students during Rural Medicine Week in years past, and find it to be a worthwhile experience for the students and for the City of Niagara Falls."

Because of previous Rural Medicine Weeks, several students have returned here to participate in electives with local physicians. Evidence indicates that students who train in a community are much more likely to later return to that community to practice, said Dale Morton, manager of strategic and corporate initiatives for the city, in a media release.