Two first-year medical students from the University of Manitoba have had their eyes opened to what running a rural medical practice all entails.

Friday is the last day of a week-long visit to Altona by Matt Levesque and Mykola Sackett as part of Rural Week, a seven day learning experience that integrates first year med students into northern and rural Manitoba with the hope they will consider practicing in those communities one day.

Sackett, who has lived in Winnipeg his whole life, said he was surprised to learn that the town's clinic and hospital are located close together, just across the parking lot from one another, which allows the doctors to easily move back-and-forth between the facilities throughout the day.

"It's the biggest difference from in the city where everyone's in their own niche and you basically never leave your ward or your floor," he said.

The week saw the duo shadow local doctors around the town's clinic, hospital and emergency room.

In some of the conversations throughout the week, Sackett said the local doctors shared how rural medicine allows them a certain flexibility while offering a continuum of care that isn't seen in bigger centres. For example, being able to follow up with a patient in the clinic that they may have treated in the E-R just the day prior.

Meantime, Levesque said he was surprised to learn that each doctor in Altona sees up to 35 patients a day. "That's a lot of patients so they really need someone consistent that can always be here...", he noted.

Rural Week is also a chance for communities to showcase themselves and promote the various lifestyle opportunities and benefits it has to offer.

As part of their visit, Sackett and Levesque got to experience small-town-living by touring some of Altona's businesses, using some of the area recreation facilities and visiting the local high school.

"It's a nice small community, everyone seems to know everyone," said Levesque, who has also lived in Winnipeg his entire life and never spent much time in rural Manitoba except to pass through while travelling.

The duo agree that Rural Week has offered them another speciality to consider as they move further into their medical educations.

Meantime, two med students spent the week in Morris and area.

The pair spent Thursday in Ginew and, according to a statement issued by Southern Health-Sante Sud, they felt they really learned a lot about how the clinic is run and what supports there are for the Indigenous communities. One of the students expressed an interested in coming back next year to job shadow for a day.

The two students were also given a tour of the Town of Morris.

The statement noted that one of the students is from a very small town, while the other is from Toronto, and that the student from Toronto had said Morris is the smallest community he has ever been to and was quite impressed with what the town had to offer.

13 communities within the health region participated in Rural Week 2018 including Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Ste. Anne, Vita, St. Pierre, Niverville, Carman, Morden, Winkler, Notre Dame and Crystal City.