January 16, 2025
I wanted to be a rural doctor in Canada. But our medical education system works against it.
Small towns such as Perth are having trouble attracting and retaining family physicians.
Small towns such as Perth are having trouble attracting and retaining family physicians.

Dear Perth residents, I am sorry.

My name is Emma Cronk, and I was raised on my parents’ 2,000-acre ranch in Parham, Ont., north of Kingston. I am currently a family medicine resident physician in Atlanta, Georgia at Emory University.

I tried for two application cycles for medical school in Canada, and applied broadly: from Ontario medical schools, to the east coast at Memorial University, to the west coast at University of British Columbia. After two years of rejection letters, I decided to apply internationally at Ross University School of Medicine in the Caribbean. I had come to realize that a lot of Canadian students were following this same path.

I was a NCAA D1 collegiate athlete as an undergraduate, where I played on a full basketball scholarship while simultaneously completing my Bachelor of Science in biology. I also was part of the Centre for Performance training camps, where the top athletes in Canada would come together to train on weekends throughout the year in Toronto. Furthermore, I played for Team Ontario and competed at the Canada Summer Games in Regina, the second-largest sporting event in the world besides the Olympics. Our team even brought home a gold medal, and we were recognized by Parliament for our accomplishments.

I wanted to graduate and work in rural primary care, where doctors are needed the most.

Even after my travels with basketball, my end goal was to be a rural primary-care physician near my hometown; I wanted to give back to my community. I understand the hardships that come from living an hour away from the nearest city and the importance of establishing care with a rural physician who has not only provided care to you, but to your entire family. I understand the struggle with transportation to get to appointments, to potentially reschedule, to have options for home visits, and let me tell you: I so desperately wanted to be that doctor for you.

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See Also:

(1) Half of young Americans say college is too expensive and no longer necessary

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