The Drumheller Standing Committee On Health continue to advocate for more healthcare professionals to make the Drumheller Valley their home.

On March 16th and 17th, the committee invited a number of nursing students that are currently attending the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University to come to the Drumheller Valley for some hands on training at the Drumheller Health Centre and also to showcase the impact they could have in our rural community if they choose to come to Drumheller to work after they are finished their studies. Keith Hodgson from the committee shares some of the activities the students participated in while in Drumheller. "We kept them busy for two days. They started out at the Hospital through most of the day on Saturday, where we ran them through a number of skill stations on different skills that they learned about in their classes, but have probably never have had the chance to do most of them hands on. The event was co-sponsored by the Rural Health Professions Action Plan, so they did all the arranging of the students and the events at the hospital. We had great support from AHS as well." The stations included suturing, iv starts, obstetrics, and an EMS simulator van.

As for the students attending, Hodgson believes that the weekend setting in a rural centre surprised a number of them. "I think it was a real eye opener for most of them and by the end of the weekend they were meeting our expectations as far as considering rural medicine when the come out of school and particularly Drumheller. From what we've heard from the students, they completed an evaluation at the end, we really opened their eyes. Hopefully we see a number of those (students) applying for opportunities in Drumheller when they are done school."

The sole purpose of the Drumheller Standing Committee On Health is the attraction and retention of healthcare professionals and Hodgson notes that this group has been working on this goal for years. "Our committee works year round. We've been in existence now for five or six years and our goal is attraction and retention, working alongside AHS because it's their responsibility to bring staff in. Anything we can do, even in the community, to let the community know there are opportunities to help in the process. We had really great support this year in our fundraising for this event. It was nice to see the community stepping up to help us in that matter."

This is the fifth time they have hosted this type of event since 2004 and the previous event in 2019 garnered seven applications at the Drumheller Health Centre, of which four became employees of AHS and in Drumheller.