Global News: ‘Trailblazing’ medical grad looks forward to providing care for underserved Indigenous communities
A Manitoba First Nation is celebrating a local university graduate for more reasons than one.
Brooke Cochrane, 26, will officially become a medical doctor in June after graduating from the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba.
Not only is she the first in her family to do so, but she’ll be the first doctor to come from Fisher River Cree Nation.
“I think it’s a very big honour to be able to represent Fisher River, as well as Cree peoples, within the medical school system in Manitoba,” Cochrane says.
“As we know, Manitoba has a large population of Indigenous peoples, and therefore Indigenous patients, and I think it’s very important for physicians to represent the population that they serve.”
The ambitious soon-to-be doctor will be pursuing rural family medicine during her residency at Boundary Trails Health Centre, but intends to eventually return to Fisher River to serve her home community.
“Myself entering medical school, as well as other Indigenous medical students entering, I think we’re really making a shift that is super important for the safety and the cultural safety Indigenous patients will face and see when they enter into health care,” Cochrane says.
Read the full Global News story online.