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Students taking classes on working locally

On Thursday, May 17, committee members of the Lac La Biche Regional Attraction and Retention Society (LLB RARS) met at the Mayor's office to discuss their 'Rural Skills Day' event — which is being held this Tuesday (May 28) at Portage College.
LLB RARS

On Thursday, May 17, committee members of the Lac La Biche Regional Attraction and Retention Society (LLB RARS) met at the Mayor's office to discuss their 'Rural Skills Day' event — which is being held this Tuesday (May 28) at Portage College.

The Committee is a recently formed local chapter of the Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP) — a provincial organization. The local society's committee members include representation from different organizations including Lac La Biche County Mayor Omer Moighrabi, County Councillors Jason Stedman and Charlyn Moore, other members at Large Dr. Richard Birkill, Zicki Eludin, Colin Anderson, Michele McDougall (Portage College representative), Kim Fleming (RhPAP), Gislind Morley, Lisa Dribnenki  and Chairperson David Phillips.

The organization was created because of the growing need to retain local students, mainly those who leave their home communities to pursue higher education in the healthcare field. Through their programs like the Rural Skills Day event, RARS demonstrates to these students how they can benefit by coming back to serve their home communities, says Dribnenki, a career counselor at the J.A. Williams High School.

"We want to promote a sustainable rural healthcare workforce... Our goal is that our students will consider returning home to practice and live in their home community.  We want to attract and retain the best candidates and why not our own citizens," she said.
Tuesday's Rural Skills Day event at Portage is a one-day event for high school students to learn about rural health care. There are 35 high school students from the region with an interest in healthcare careers that have registered for Rural Skills Day. Students will experience hands-on, interactive, and engaging medical skills stations taught by local healthcare professionals.
"The event is based on the concept of growing your own healthcare professionals... It is an interactive and engaging day where students will learn skills used in various healthcare settings including suturing, airway management and IV Starts... They will be mentored by professionals from their community who can provide details about working as a healthcare provider in rural Alberta," explained Dribnenki.
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