OttawaMore than 200 high school students from around eastern Ontario got to do hands-on work at The Ottawa Hospital Monday to try to convince some of them to get into family medicine.2nd time University of Ottawa has organized eventCBC News · Posted: Dec 09, 2025 8:55 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.High school student Lexie Maeck, left, got to practice how to give an ultrasound at an educational event at The Ottawa Hospital on Monday. (Emma Weller/CBC)Lexie Maeck wasn’t expecting to be doing an ultrasound on another person when she visited The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus on Monday.The 16-year-old from Ottawa is trying to figure out what she wants to do after high school and was one of more than 200 high school students from around eastern Ontario doing hands-on workshops during the second Destination: Family Medicine event. The University of Ottawa organizes it to give students a glimpse of what family doctors do so they might get them interested in the field.”What I had originally thought they [did] … was mostly just appointments at clinics and strep tests. But they do a lot more than that,” Maeck said.Students also got to learn how to cast a limb, deliver babies (via a simulation), insert an intrauterine device (IUD) and handle medical emergencies on an airplane.Maeck was one of more than 200 students from grades 9 to 12 who took part in a medical education event at the Civic hospital campus. (Emma Weller/CBC)”The whole idea is [to] try to not only inspire them and do family medicine, but hopefully meet some mentors so they can get an idea of what the path is like to become a family doctor,” said Malik Ekhdoura, a resident physician at the hospital.Trying to inspire the next generation Ivy Oandasan, director of the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s education department, said recruiting efforts like this can help the millions of people who need a family doctor in Canada. The event costs $200, with 75 spots for students to attend for free if they’d otherwise struggle to afford it.Malik Ekhdoura, a resident physician at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus, said he wants to event to inspire students who feel they don’t have a chance in pursuing medicine. (Emma Weller/CBC)Ekhdoura said part of the event’s focus is to target youths from lower socio-economic backgrounds who don’t think they have a chance in medicine. He added that he struggled with finding the right mentors early on in his career.”That was a hard part for me. I didn’t come from a family of doctors. I came into university very lost and had no idea where to go with medicine,” he said. “And luckily I met some good friends, older friends that were good mentors to me, and that’s what I am trying to do with this.”With files from Emma Weller
Hands-on workshop introduces high school students to family medicine
