(2014 Northern Medical Program grads display nameplates with pride.  Photo courtesy UNBC)

Prince George, B.C. – It doesn’t seem all that long ago that the very first students enrolled in the Northern medical Program began their studies.

The year was 2004 and those first students numbered 24.  And, although they began their medical education at UBC, they completed it at the University of Northern British Columbia.  The graduation of the first group of doctors from the NMP came in 2008.

The 2014 Northern Medical Program graduation ceremony was held Saturday at the Canfor Theatre at UNBC.  Thirty-two students became doctors, although there are residency requirements (2 years for family practice, longer for other specialties) which must be met before they can officially hang a shingle bearing their name and the letters proclaiming their particular medical proficiency.  Five grads will do their residency in Prince George, one in Fort St. John.

Northerners made up the majority of this graduating class.  Seven are from Prince George: Nicole Von Alkier, Christopher Turski, Sonny Thiara, Tom Tang, Katherine Santos Andrea Miners and Garren Martin.  As well there are grads from Terrace, Hazelton, Smithers, Burns Lake, Quesnel, Williams Lake and Fort St. John.

Terri Hopkins of Fort St. John was presented with the Tony Eckersley Memorial Award for Family/Emergency Medicine while Nicholas Jawanda of Quesnel won the Joe Sidorov Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine.

The stated goal of the Northern Medical Program is to double the number of physicians trained in BC.  The credo of the northern proponents of the program was/is “to train and retain in the north.”