Edward Schwartzenberger grew up on a beef farm just outside Sundre. Today, he is a third-year medical student at the University of Calgary, and although he is fairly new to the medical profession he has already been honoured by his colleagues.
He is one of three recipients of the Alberta Medical Association's Section of Rural Medicine's Tarrant Scholarship for third-year students.
The scholarship is awarded to third-year students who have demonstrated an interest in, and dedication to, rural medicine issues in their undergraduate work. The scholarship provides for a full year tuition for each of the three recipients.
“We hope by encouraging young doctors to look outside major city limits, it will help rural communities recruit and retain qualified physicians,” said Dr. Allan Garbutt, president of the AMA's Section of Rural Medicine.
As part of his medical training Schwartzenberger has participated in the U of C's Rural Integrated Community Clerkship program, which sees students shadow physicians at rural hospitals, helping with patient care and learning on the job. Sundre is one of the participating communities in the program.
He said he has learned that “without convenient access to specialists, rural physicians are often required to handle a number of different medical situations that their urban colleagues would refer to specialists.”
“There are lots of people who live in rural areas that don't have access to a family doctor and they don't have anyone coordinating their care. As well, in terms of specialists, people in rural areas have a hard time getting in to see specialists because they have to travel to Calgary or Edmonton for their appointments.
“There seems to be a discrepancy between people in the cities and people in the rural areas and their medical care.”
He said he “witnessed first-hand the trials rural patients go through to access health-care resources.”
For example, he said when his father was diagnosed with leukemia, his mother had to take the whole day off work to drive him to Calgary for treatments.
There are good programs in place to encourage new doctors to come to rural communities, programs such as the rural physician action plan that allows medical students to do their medical clerkships in rural hospitals, he said.
“I think there are a lot of positive things happening, but I think there just needs to be more rural health-care providers,” he said.
Residents may want to contact their MLAs to encourage the government to do more to ensure rural medicine is a priority, he said.
