Third-year student at northern med school receives Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Award

Sudbury -

Receiving extra reassurance that she is on the right path, a third-year medical student at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is the latest recipient of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame award.

“It was honestly just such an honour and so, so humbling to receive that email that said I had been considered because, you know, the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, it’s a big deal,” said Danica Desjardins.

“It's an organization that recognizes so much important work in medicine. So to have my name appear along side other medical students who have won this award in the past and are also recipients of this award this year, as well, is really such an honour.”

The award is given out to second-year students who show perseverance, community leadership and other promising skills in the medical field.

'It's a struggle'

“I find that in medical school I’m not at the top of my class you know, like I’m doing fine academically, you know, I’m plugging away,” Desjardins said. “It’s a struggle. It’s a hard time, but I find that I really set myself apart in ways that have more to do with advocacy and more to do with talking about the social determinants of peoples' health, rather that being that student who can remember every single detail about any given medical condition. So kind of being recognized for those efforts is really motivating and really inspiring to continue.”

She said she didn’t know her name was being put forward and she was nominated by NOSM facility.

“As somebody who kind of got into medicine because I’m really passionate about diversity and inclusion, I’m really passionate about advocacy in medicine as well," Desjardins said.

"It’s really exciting for me to be recognized for some of those advocacy initiatives. For example, I’m currently working on a project at NOSM to include or 2SLGBTQ health curriculum in our medical school curriculum.”

Desjardin is currently in Hearst, completing a year of clerkship where medical students get to shadow physicians and interact with patients. She said that wherever her career ends up taking her, she hopes to continue to advocate for the PRIDE community and stay in northern Ontario.