In the 12 years since it was opened, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine reports that 94% of family medicine graduates who do their residency in the North practice there, while two-thirds of all graduates opt to work in remote and rural areas and not just those in Northern Ontario. The dean of NOSM states that before the school opened, some remote communities went years without a physician, adding many of the students are residents of Northern Ontario who embrace the rhythms of rural life. NOSM has 64 places for medical students, split between two campuses. NOSM students do a four-week placement in a remote Indigenous community in the first year. In second, there are two two-week stints in rural areas. The third year requires an eight-month clerkship in one of 15 communities and, in the final year, students spend time in a tertiary hospital in Sudbury or North Bay. Two-thirds of NOSM graduates choose family medicine for their residency. That's double the national average.
NBHC Care Experience