Medical students showcased their summer placements — and a new Indigenous leadership stream — at the Discover Health Careers Manitoba wrap-up event hosted by Doctors Manitoba.

The big picture: Discover Health Careers Manitoba (formerly Home for the Summer) gives students hands-on experience in health care settings over the summer. 

• Originally designed to draw students back to rural practice after graduation, the program has since expanded to include Winnipeg sites, too. It’s run by Manitoba’s Health Care Retention & Recruitment Office as an early-recruitment tool for health care students.

What’s new: This year marked the launch of Kiskenimisowin Nikaniwi (“Finding Yourself and Leadership”), a three-week stream where six Indigenous medical students completed clinical placements with Indigenous preceptors in Indigenous, northern, or rural settings, alongside cultural leadership programming. It was delivered by Ongomiizwin Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, in partnership with Discover Health Careers.

Winning presentation: Halle Cochrane took top honours for A Diagnosis Is Not the Same as Access. Judge Dr. Glennis Bird selected her project as the winner.

• The presentation focused on barriers to disability services for families in the Northern Interlake, including First Nations represented by the Interlake Reserves Tribal Council. 
• Working with preceptor Dr. Lisa Monkman, Cochrane found families can wait nearly two years between an autism diagnosis and a developmental clinic appointment with Children’s disABILITY Services. ​“Dr. Monkman would advocate for patients in the room, and offer resources,” Cochrane said. 

Also presenting: Mikayla Trojan (primary care in the Northern Interlake, with Dr. Jade Young); Pamela Angees and Sarah Lemoine-Sells (Hepatitis A outbreak response in Garden Hill); Jocelyn Peters (speech-language pathology access, with Dr. Jenwa Beaupré); Michelle Guimond (early intervention for Hepatitis C); and Kaesy Enns (HIV screening and outreach in Flin Flon).

This year’s winners:

• Group 1 (tie): Zeta War & Elliott Kinnear; Misha Sweet
• Group 2 (tie): Radene Chabluk; Abby Edmond
• Group 3 – Kiskenimisowin Nikaniwi: Halle Cochrane

Judges: Dr. Ian Alexander, Dr. Glennis Bird, and Dr. Bittoo Malik.

Back row (L‑R): Kaesy Enns, Mikayla Trojan, Jocelyn Peters, Pamela Angees, Dr. Glennis Bird. Front row (L‑R): Michelle Guimond, Halle Cochrane, Chantal Daniels (Director, Ongomiizwin – Education), Sarah Lemoine-Sells.