Many families in Dufferin are currently without a family doctor because the area needs 13 more physicians - nine in Orangeville and four in Shelburne.

Enticing physicians to set up practice in the area is the goal of the Greater Dufferin Area Physician Search Committee, and working through the province's Rural Ontario Medical Program, six medical students will be in Orangeville next week to get a first-hand look at the community.

"We have the ability to expose them to the field and plant the seed," said Ronnie Ingles, spokesperson for the physicians search committee and co-ordinator for the students.

"Students just starting out likely haven't decided where they will end up after university."

Students have to apply and be accepted into the rural medicine week elective, organized by rural or underserviced communities.

Roderick Ting Fung Cheung, Patrick Wong, Keith Wong, Danni Li, Lan Qui Lancia Guo and Armela Dicu, all first- and secondyear medical students at the University of Toronto, will be on hand at the Headwaters Health Care Centre to experience the facility.

"We have a full agenda for the week," says Ms. Ingles. "They are going to be on the go."

The students will be working with doctors and staff in the suture and casting clinics, where they will participate in chest tube insertion, intubation, obstetrics, emergency and have a tour of the hospital including pastoral and palliative care, hospice and learn about the auxiliary and ambulance unit.

"This is something most first- and second-year students don't get to experience," says Ms. Ingles.

In the community the group will be visiting local sites including downtown Orangeville and Island Lake Conservation.

"We are selling the community as well as the hospital. If the students don't see the area and community, how will they know if they would like to work here."

"The physicians at Headwaters and in the community are providing medical students with an outstanding learning opportunity. We hope that a positive experience in our community will convince these students to return to Headwaters when setting up their practice," said Louise Kindree, chair of the physicians search committee, in an earlier interview.

The Headwaters Health Care Centre and the community actively participate in recruiting future doctors; 2005-06 was a busy year for medical placements with 53 medical students, clinical clerks and residents (graduate physicians) participating in programs locally.

The physicians search committee is a volunteer organization that works hard to recruit doctors to the community.