The TRUTH about Rural Medicine in Remote Northern Canada: Rural Doctor Reacts to Dr. Glaucomflecken

I'm an actual rural doctor - working in remote Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada. Here are my reactions to Dr Glaucomflecken's takes on rural medicine.
Spoiler alert: Dr G's comments are surprisingly accurate!

[@hadrianbuiltawall9531]

In a city, the situation would cause a major panic. In a rural community, its "you have SOME idea what's wrong? Good, sew me up and let me go".

[@riohenry6382]

I was in the ICU for a week (I’m fine now, thank God). When I recovered my voice (I had lost the ability to make sense). I made friends with an indigenous man who lived thousands of miles from Ottawa but could only be treated in Ottawa. He was there for over a month, all alone, with no visitors or family. We’re a big country and I understand there's only so much money but this man's predicament broke my heart

[@WaiferThyme]

That's sad😢.

[@BearAndFoxBeadworks]

As an indigenous physical therapist assistant here in rural Texas, I want to thank you for addressing one of the most traumatic recent events that our people have to live with. Not many non-native people realize that it still takes a real toll on so many. So thank you for having such a kind heart ❤️ Also, Dr. G is hysterical, I love all of his videos. Rural med and Ortho are my favorites, lol. Keep up the good work, and many blessings to you!!!

[@lethabrooks9112]

I live in Rural Nevada and rural doctors have to deal with grumpy old ranchers who havent seen a doctor since Nixon was in office!

[@FrancoNogarin]

Not sure how I have never had you as a Doctor, but I sure am glad you are with us in Fort Smith

[@DrYanYu]

Thank you Franco! Happy to be working here!

[@edstockman5584]

Army medic, so my entire care set is pre-hospital emergencies...some of the little comments still throw me. No ventilator? That's rough, even we have those in our field sets.

[@cherylw5554]

Great video Dr. Yu. Nice to gain insight on your work in Fort Smith. We miss you at the clinic when you go, but I can appreciate how rewarding the work must be.

[@DrYanYu]

Thanks for watching!! :)

[@jppenton93]

Love it Yan! See ya back in Fort Smith next time!

[@DrYanYu]

See you soon!

[@nursemarie4819]

I recently retired from rural nursing in Alberta and I can relate to much of this - our lab technicians trained as combined lab / X-ray technicians- a course that’s designed for rural hospitals - I was surprised that d-dimers aren’t done there - as RN ‘s we would run troponins, d-dimers and bnp’s outside of lab hours - same machine different test kits

[@DrYanYu]

thank you for your service!! please share this video with those who may also relate!

[@nursemarie4819]

@@DrYanYuthank you for helping out rural communities !

[@andrearaicich3974]

Loved the video! I am a doctor from Chile and now I am going to be a rural doctor for 6 years in the North of the country. I know is going to be a great experience and people are going to be greatfull, they always are.

[@VishalSharma-by3oq]

I love your videos! So insightful into what Family Medicine is like in Canada. I am an MS4 applying for FM right now. I would love to see some more videos related to what your day-to-day life looks like and what work-life balance means to you!

[@DrYanYu]

Thanks for your kind feedback - sounds like good video topics for the future! Best of luck to you with your residency applications!

[@rockinstrawberries]

This is so interesting!! Crazy how different things can be, while still all in Canada. Thanks for showing us all this :) from a big city girl

[@mimmy0193]

This sounds so much like Australian rural medicine.

[@SLPtoMD]

I used to work in Hay River and Yellowknife as SLP!! I really miss the NWT and hope to locum up there once I graduate as a physician 😊

[@DrYanYu]

Nice! Thanks for your service!

[@nancynelosn5830]

I live in San Francisco, CA. I loved your video. You are a compassionate, energetic physician. Thank you for all you do for that community.

[@dragons7764]

I'm a big city girl (Toronto) who's always been fascinated by the field of medicine. Very proud of you, a fellow Canadian, who's making such a positive impact serving in our under-resourced far north, especially our Indigenous Peoples! Thank you for sharing your real life perspective alongside Dr. Glaucomflecken's humourous take on rural medicine

[@babysleepysheepyrainbow]

I grew up in rural Arkansas, thankfully we have a small hospital nearby, but it can't really do anything a city hospital could. This video series about rural medicine hits so close to home.

[@squidleyskidley]

This was a really fascinating video, thank you! As an RN, I could see myself retiring in a rural community someday and being one of the few healthcare workers.

[@drsgopi]

kudos to you, Dr Yu!

[@alysoncovin]

Thanks for sharing your experience! You're amazing

[@DrYanYu]

Thank you! What are some other topics you'd like to see me cover in future videos?

[@law7326]

Bless you Dr. Yu!

[@Artem_Safarov]

Great work, Yan! Appreciated you taking the time to share these insights. Really comprehensive and concise video - very much enjoyed it!

[@susie9893]

This is a great thing to do for that community but it also gives an urban GP the opportunity to keep their acute care skills up to date. Should be mandatory imo

[@brendasears9650]

Very much enjoyed and learned a lot from your vid. Thanks for being an awesome human!!

[@melaniemaec1]

Great video..and grateful your healping the indigenous and Métis people so well and with a good heart.❤️

[@siamak81]

Great video, Thank you!

[@Dogrin]

So insightful--thank you!

[@StacySalles55]

I don’t live in Canada but this was fascinating.

[@DrYanYu]

Thanks! Please share with others who’d be interested!

[@rachelm.keyser4902]

Great job Doc. As a Healthcare Profsl this is very informative indeed

[@misskitty2133]

Hey doc! Your video popped up in my feed & as medicine interests me I thought I’d take a look. We’ll just subscribed! I loved this one! Will catch up on your stuff & can’t wait for new news. Best to you & thanks for what you do!

[@abbunnies9784]

Thank you for being in Alberta and going the extra mile helping out in a rural community. I hope that things for doctors here start improving soon so that the strain on family doctors can start to ease. Once again thank you, and keep up the great work!

[@---l---]

Appreciate the insights.

[@sharvo6]

Interesting comments!

[@jackiej4069]

really interesting, thank you Doctor

[@vintagemoss9578]

I think it’s wonderful what you’re doing 😊

[@jenleigh4212]

Interesting video!

[@Triisane]

This was fantastic! Currently studying abroad in ireland but im thinking of doing rural medicine when I come back for matching.

[@WaiferThyme]

I had to get Emergency surgery when I broke my leg. When my surgeon came to see me in IMCU, he told me I'd had a Maisonneuve Fracture. My nurse and I had no clue what that meant so we Googled it and learned about it together. 😊. It actually made us closer as a patient/carer team !

[@alicebecht859]

Great video, rural medicine seems challenging but rewarding.

[@sirennoir258]

I love it!

[@carolmiller6487]

I love this rural doctor.

[@richardmyhan3369]

So who's your Texaco Mike?? 😂 Seriously though, keep up the good work. Takes a truly selfless person to do rural medicine.

[@capndayafterday]

I love watching doctors react to Dr. Glaucomflecken. Especially the specialist he jokes about. Especially the doctors who have tongue in cheek reactions like: “That’s totally what orthopedic surgeons are like, except me, I know there’s more antibiotics than ancef. It’s just, ancef is the best!” But onto you good sir. How does the rotation work? Are you in Fort Smith a few weeks at a time? A few months? Having never been to Canada, but heard about the winter storms up there, is one doctor assigned to stay all winter because of how far north you are? I’d love to hear how the rotations and how that works. It’d be enlightening to learn about. 😁

[@laurapopper7849]

Thanks!

[@DrYanYu]

Wow thank you! truly appreciate your support!

[@roscoemccoy8383]

The TV show SkyMed on Paramount+ depicts the lack of medical resources in rural Canada, also the needs of indigenous populations.

[@traillesstravelled7901]

Thanks for your insights. Rural life helps strip away some of the pretentiousness, fake and unsociable aspects of big city life.

[@theVtuberCh]

Fort Smith’s logo looks like a hazmat warning cluster.

[@courtneystage3969]

So as you were nodding I’m like “omg this is real”…then you listed the stuff you do there…bro…no ventilator? Hats off to you Dr

[@madeofmandrake1748]

Yeah, my first thought on that was Covid, but realistically it's unlikely the pandemic even made it to Fort Smith. I can only imagine needing to fly a sick person out of town for a ventilator while their family waits at home scared.

[@Narinjas]

You know that in anime you have Slice of Life genre... how about a Rural Medicine Slice of Life anime, with actual medical information, for teaching purposes, while featuring an endearing pair of doctors that are all doing all sorts of stuff in the community, and you have part of the episode focusing on the daily/weekly routine of one of them, and an other part focusing on a hospital case like Dr. HOUSE does... but anime... Rural Medicine...

[@frankwest5388]

That sounds like a great idea. Things that usually wouldn’t be a big deal for a normal sized hospital suddenly become the thing that could possibly happen. Like a car crash with multiple injured. In a big city hospital that’s not a big deal, they have teams around the clock for this kinda stuff. But if you only have 3 doctors and 10 people needing emergency surgery at once, is like the worst possible outcome. Maybe the MC could be an experienced big city surgeon, who now switches to do family medicine, because he replaces a friend at the hospital for a year or two and he now must deal with the massively reduced amount of resources at his disposal. And one of the other doctors could be a resident that freshly graduated and now must learn to hide his insecurity from being new. This could really work.

[@williampage622]

But I thought Canada had wonderful socialized medicine? I admire this physicians dedication to medicine.

[@SandfordSmythe]

Depends on the province

[@rsh793]

Yeah - that's one huge surgery there - several nurses, an OT, a physio, a social worker and mental health counsellors - that's a huge staff - along with 3 doctors on transfer over.

[@hiswife2002]

No speech therapist?

[@roscoemccoy8383]

Probably by telemed...

[@Dog.soldier1950]

Medical care in Canada. Free but you get what you pay for!

[@sharvo6]

hmm, I wonder what facilities are like in remote Alaskan areas ... I expect there's no facilities unless there's profit.

[@Dog.soldier1950]

@@sharvo6 depend on who your are. The US Indian health Service supports Indian health for enrolled Tribal members. The State does support remote clinics and evacuation service for non enrolled (aka white folks) to a certain extent. Getting health care in very isolated areas is never easy.