Medical student anxious to work in Yellowknife
Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jan 05/01) - A young medical student studying in Calgary has not forgotten his Northern roots.
Michael Parkins, 24, left Yellowknife back in 1994 to attend the University of Calgary. With the help of a scholarship from the Government of Canada, Parkins obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology in 1998. He then completed a Masters of Science program last May and was the recipient of the Graduate Studies Silver Medallion for Excellence in a Masters Program.
He is now in his first year of the Medical Doctorate Program at the University of Calgary.
When his studies are completed he plans to return to the North to practice medicine.
Parkins said he has always wanted to return home to Yellowknife. The fact that there's plenty of opportunities for doctors setting up shop in Yellowknife due to the accute shortage is all the better.
"I think the whole prospect of practising medicine in Yellowknife is interesting in itself because it's kind of an isolated regional centre in which you will have exposure to a lot of different things and perhaps more opportunity to see certain things than you would in a larger centre."
The young medical student hasn't made his mind up about what area of medicine he would like to practice in, but said he is leaning towards internal medicine, such as cardiology, nephrology and gastroenterology.
"It is my first year and I may end up changing my mind, but that's what I like right now."
He has communicated with an internist in Yellowknife to discuss the possibility of doing clinical work here sometime in the near future.
Parkins said there are several other medical students at the University of Calgary who are looking to travel North as well.
"A few have looked into performing (internships) in Yellowknife, but we're all so far away from actually practising so the actual job scouting is a long way off."
