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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT Medical Association (NWTMA) is organizing an evening of food and wine at the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre on March 8 to help provide bursaries for Northern medical students.

Marlena Guzowski, executive director for the NWT Medical Association, is promoting an evening of food and wine at the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre on March 8 to raise money to provide bursaries for Northern medical students. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

Marlena Guzowski, executive director for the NWTMA, said medical students face up to 10 years of training and end up with a large debt load once they graduate, even with the return-of-service program offered by the GNWT, which covers some of the cost for medical school if the graduates come back and work in the North.

"Most students have about $200,000 in loans for medical school," she said. "Even with return-of-service programs, it's still not covering all of it. They're still in debt. You're starting out work with a mortgage but you don't have a house.

"The bursary is to help them out. It's free money."

Currently there are 15 students from the NWT in medical school, the highest proportion of students in medical school per capita of all the provinces and territories of Canada.

"If we can keep them here, it would be really great for the community," she said. "Fifteen doesn't seem like a lot, but considering there are less than 60 doctors in the NWT, it's a lot."

Recruiting doctors to work here can be difficult, Guzowski said, as other parts of Canada have competitive salaries and benefits.

"They can go to a small town in Northern Ontario and do just as well," she said. "It's a lot cheaper and they are closer to things, whereas here, they're in the middle of nowhere.

"It would be a lot better to educate students from here. They are more willing to stay because they grew up here."

Helping medical students feel welcome and needed is important to the NWTMA, she said, and is the reason it is working with the GNWT to help create relationships between doctors and medical students.

"If you feel like you're wanted and the community cares for you, you're more likely to go there than to a place where it's like a rat race for doctors and nobody cares," she said.

The March 8 event will be catered by Chef Pierre's Catering and will include a group of guest speakers who will talk about the history and current state of medical service in the North. Guzowski said she is particularly excited for George Gibson's presentation. Gibson was one of the first doctors to work in the North and used to travel to communities by dog sled.

"It's going to be a really great evening," she said.

Derek Younge and Peter McArthur will talk about their experiences working in Saudi Arabia and John Morse will talk about aspects of medical training for Northern students. Jan Stirling, a pioneer in Northern nursing, will share her experiences of working here in the North.

Tickets for the event can be purchased through the NWT Medical Association.