When Sydney Ford began medical school three years ago, she knew it would be a long and demanding road. What she couldn’t fully grasp was just how quickly the time would pass or how much the experience would shape her.
Now entering her fourth and final year in the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), the PEI native is reflecting on a journey that’s been challenging, eye-opening, and incredibly rewarding. With specialty rotations well underway, she’s closer than ever to realizing the dream she’s carried since childhood.
“I feel like I blinked and suddenly I'm preparing for CaRMS,” she said, referencing the national Canadian Resident Matching Service that helps medical graduates match into residency positions. “It's surreal, but it’s happening – I’m becoming a doctor, and I honestly feel like I’ve found where I’m meant to be.”
Over the past year, Sydney has rotated through core specialties – family medicine, pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, psychiatry, and obstetrics and gynecology – as part of her clinical clerkship. As a proud Islander, she has benefited from MUN’s distributed medical education model, which includes rotations in smaller communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and back home on PEI. Sydney said the transition from classroom to clinical settings has been intense, but it’s where she’s thrived.
“When you’re speaking with patients, trying to come up with a care plan, you realize this is the heart of medicine,” she said. “You start to see how it all connects from the classroom to the exam room and start to get a feel for what it’s like to be a physician.”
Like many of her peers, Sydney has faced moments of doubt, long hours, and emotional exhaustion. She’s had to learn the importance of setting boundaries and asking for support. She began clerkship uncertain of her future specialty, but her experiences since – especially in family medicine and pediatrics – have helped clarify her goals. As she enters her final year, she’s preparing residency applications, has weighed her options, and is looking ahead to the next chapter. She’s hopeful to stay in the Maritimes, ideally returning to practice on PEI.
“Being back on PEI during some of my rotations has reminded me how much I care about the people and the system here and I feel a strong pull to return. I’ve also come to realize how much I love working with kids, which is why I hope to go into general pediatrics,” she said. “I’m a bit terrified of the actual CaRMs process and trying to find a pediatrics residency given how competitive it can be, but I have faith it will all work out.”
Sydney is part of one of the final cohorts of PEI students completing their entire MD program off-Island before a new opportunity opens at home through Memorial University’s Faculty of Medicine regional campus at UPEI. The first year of students start this month.
“I have a really good friend starting at UPEI, so I’ll definitely be thinking of her and her classmates as they make history as the first group at UPEI,” Sydney said. “I’m sure there will be challenges in the first year of this new regional campus, but the fact that it’s opening more seats in an MD program for Islanders than it ever has in the past is exciting. I hope it means more Islanders practicing medicine overall and more people choosing PEI to establish their practice.”
With her white coat a little more worn and her stethoscope now second nature, Sydney says she’s entering her final year with gratitude, clarity, and the same quiet determination that carried her through the first.
“I’ve grown so much since that first day in what feels like a short period of time,” she said. “It certainly hasn’t been easy, but it’s been worth it. I’m not at the finish line yet, but I’m getting closer and I’m more excited than ever to see what comes next. My gratitude to those who have supported me and cheered me on throughout this journey and best of luck to those just starting out.”
MSPEI wishes all medical students – whether at MUN with Sydney, beginning their journey at MUN@UPEI, attending Dalhousie, or studying elsewhere – the very best in the coming year. And, to the new students on PEI: welcome! We hope that you, like Sydney, feel the pull of this beautiful Island and choose to build your future in medicine here.
Want to read more about Sydney’s journey? We first introduced you to Sydney Ford three years ago when she began her medical education.
Read from the beginning in, "An Islander's Journey to Medicine."