Lyn Power

Based at the Burin Family Practice, Dr. Lyn Power (Class of 1996) was recently appointed as an assistant professor in the Discipline of Family Medicine. She is a clinical educator in the Rural Clinical Education Network (RMEN) and the site lead for the Family Medicine Project for Enhanced Rural and Remote Training (PERRT) within its postgraduate training program.

Enhanced rural training is offered in Burin and Grand Falls-Windsor whereby residents can spend up to one year of their two-year program based at one rural site. This option was financed in 2011 through special funding from the provincial Department of Health and Community Services and Health Canada. Dr. Power has been instrumental in getting the Burin site up and running.

Dr. Power’s faculty interest is in longitudinal clerkships and last year she piloted an extended clerkship rotation in Burin. With her faculty appointment, she will now be able to block off time for educational and administrative work to improve the programs for clerkship and residency. In addition to Dr. Power, the MUN preceptors in Burin are Drs. Stacey Saunders and Bill Moulton.

Dr. Power has been in Burin since August 1998, following a locum in Clarenville. “I wanted a well-rounded practice and I had identified that size of a centre as where I wanted to practice. I am currently chief for emergency and the learning curve is continuous.”

In 2011, Dr. Power received the Dr. Yong Kee Jeon Award from the Discipline of Family Medicine for excellence in teaching family medicine residents.

Dr. Power said the biggest challenge to living in a rural area is keeping up with the sports and music interests of her sons Liam, 12, Shaemus, 10, and Simon, age 5. “Fortunately my husband is able to stay home because a lot of opportunities are St. John’s-based, and that requires a lot of travel.”

Dr. Cathy MacLean, chair of the Discipline of Family Medicine, said the discipline is excited to have Dr. Power on board and “to engage her energy and passion for rural family medicine as a part of our education and scholarship endeavours.”