Hay River (May 31/04) - Tina Lacerte is a rarity. As far as she knows, she is the only doctor currently working in the NWT who was born and raised here, except for a dentist in Inuvik.

"I always believed I'd come back to the North," she says. "There's just something about it. It's a great place to be."

Since Jan. 1, the Inuvik-born Lacerte has been the medical director and chief of staff with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. She arrived in town in mid-2002, just a couple of months after graduating from the University of Manitoba.

Lacerte is currently on maternity leave, but will return to work in August.

More aware

Lacerte believes it would be good if more Northerners became doctors.

Growing up in the North, people become more aware of the unique situations here, she says, explaining that could be as basic as understanding how distances between communities affect health care.

As for why there are so few doctors from the NWT, Lacerte is not really sure.

"I don't know if it's expectations," she says, explaining some young people may think opportunities are limited because they come from small Northern towns.

There is also the problem of having to go south to train, she notes. "They would have to go away for so long."

Lacerte says family support was vital in her becoming a doctor. "They were supportive and did everything they could to help."

Plus, she has relatives in the south, which made it easier to go away to study.

That family support continues with her husband, Scott Hutchinson.

"I'm so lucky because my husband stays at home and looks after the kids," says the mother of two young children.

She jokes that making the evening meal involves asking, "Hon, what's for supper?"

Lacerte, 31, says it is almost unheard of that a recent graduate becomes medical director. "It's amazing. I'm fresh and I'm a young person. I can't believe I've been given this opportunity."

In fact, her doctor friends in the south are equally amazed. When she told some of them, they asked, "Are there other doctors there?"

She describes the position as a "great new challenge."

Lacerte says her biggest goal is to help recruit new doctors for Hay River, noting the town has been recently short two or three permanent physicians. Those jobs are filled by locums.

A medical director/chief of staff helps develop and implement policies on various health issues, and is a liaison between doctors and administration.

Lacerte did not always want to be a doctor. "I wanted to be a mechanic, but my dad said there was a lot of sexism in that industry."

When she was a teenager, her first hospital experience was as a candystriper.