Med Students debuts tonight

Med Students, a new 13-part documentary series featuring McMaster's medical students and residents, airs tonight on the Life Network at 9 p.m.

The series provides audiences with a behind the scenes look at the innovative style of learning in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Filmed by Breakthrough Productions, each episode chronicles the diverse experiences of medical students as they work alongside faculty and hospital staff within McMaster Health Sciences and its affiliated teaching hospitals. The distinct environment in which these future health care professionals are educated and trained will be portrayed along with the perspective of staff participants who facilitate this unique process. By allowing viewers to witness McMaster's self-directed and problem-based learning styles, the series places a human face on McMaster's rigourous academic programs.

“The film series offers important opportunities for all of us in Hamilton,” says John Kelton, dean and vice-president of McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences. “First, it will help support our students since all profits will be used for student scholarships and bursaries. Second, the series will enhance the image of our city, our University, our hospitals, our students and all of our dedicated health care providers.”

The series also raises McMaster's profile nationally while highlighting the University's many attributes and innovative learning style, Kelton says.

The series focuses on individuals as they experience real life challenges on their journey to becoming doctors. A range of stories will showcase the spectrum of challenges unfolding at McMaster as well as the contribution students offer to the health care system. Students experience first-time exposure to a trauma, a birth, surgery and everyday emergencies.

The documentary series will air every Monday on the Life Network at 9 p.m. beginning tonight and again on Discovery Health this fall.