About the Sarnia Clerkship
The Sarnia Clerkship will support our third year medical students to live in and become a member of their clerkship community while undertaking their key clinical training experience. They will receive the majority of their clinical training in Bluewater Health and Rapids Family Health Team, working closely with health professionals and hospital staff to broaden their expertise as medical experts and develop their sense of social accountability.
Goals of the Sarnia Clerkship
The goals of this clerkship program are to:
- Provide immersive training opportunities and a stable learning environment for clerkship students where they benefit from smaller student-to-preceptor ratios allowing for lasting relationships with their preceptors
- Align with the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry strategic priority of social accountability in Southwestern Ontario
- Facilitate the recruitment and retention support health services in underserved areas and increase medical student engagement with regional community members in Sarnia
- Facilitate recruitment of health human resources in regional communities through early exposure and immersion
What are the advantages of the Sarnia Clerkship?
- Immersive, hands-on clinical learning
- One of the biggest advantages of the Sarnia Clerkship is that most, if not all, rotations will only take on one medical student at a time. This will give you more opportunities for hands-on clinical learning compared to other training sites.
- Small student-to-preceptor ratio
- Having fewer learners around allows you to maximize your opportunity to learn from skilled preceptors at Bluewater Health, enabling your training and development as a future clinician.
- World-class hospital facilities
- By participating in the Sarnia Clerkship, you will enjoy train with excellent equipment and facilities while working with a collaborative and welcoming team.
What housing supports are available in Sarnia?
Funding support has been a approved for a one-year pilot project and is subject to change in future years. Students participating in the inaugural year of the Sarnia Clerkship (2025-2026) will receive $800/month for 12 months to support your rental housing costs in Sarnia.
Who should apply to the Sarnia Clerkship?
This clerkship is for any Year 2 student in good academic standing who would thrive in a one-on-one clinical training environment and who would like to maximize their hands-on clinical training experience. If you feel that this is you, please don’t hesitate to apply!
The Sarnia Clerkship is open to students from either London or Windsor.
Apply to the Sarnia Clerkship here.
Partnering with Bluewater Health
Bluewater Health has long been a training site in our distributed region and the faculty are highly experienced and equipped to support the clinical training of our undergraduate medical students. Bluewater Health has been training Schulich residents since 1988 and Schulich medical students since 2000. Over the past five years, Bluewater Health has supported 285 postgraduate rotations and 152 undergraduate rotations
Sarnia Clerks will have an equivalent clerkship education as London and Windsor. Students who complete their clerkship in Sarnia will complete the same rotations and the same assessments, with more hands-on learning.
For more information, contact distributed.education@schulich.uwo.ca
