Thirty-six children between six and 12 years old visited the University of Alberta for the first-ever Mini Docs Camp.
The camp is an incentive for parents and children to volunteer to be patients for second-year medical students who need to practice taking a medical history and performing a physical exam with pediatric patients. Jo-Ann Paul, educational resources co-ordinator, tried asking friends who couldn't commit, mainly because children have to come in during school hours. That's when she turned to a home-schooling network.
"Finally I found someone but they said 'what's in it for me,'" said Paul. "That's where the idea started... I surveyed a bunch of people from the network; what would they like to see, what would be worth their while? From there we ended up building this idea of a camp in return for volunteers."
Prior to this, medical students had to go on to the wards where they often could only observe their preceptors perform a physical exam on the patients because oftentimes the children are too sick.
"A preceptor once told me that a child is not just a little adult," said Reji Thomas, a second-year medical student and camp co-ordinator. "Their findings in a physical exam in normal [healthy children] are totally different and that pediatric interaction is invaluable to our education."
The kids stopped at stations for the musculo-skeletal system, the heart, the respiratory system, senses and vital signs.
For more photos from the camp, click here.