Medical student Natalie Choo examines patient Les Umpherville at Boyle Street Community Services. (CBC)

A course at the University of Alberta is giving medical students insight into the life of patients in Edmonton's inner-city.

The class is offered to residents in emergency medicine, internal medicine, family medicine and psychiatry.

"I think it’s really important for physicians to understand where their patients come from,” said Kathryn Dong, assistant professor in emergency medicine. “The further you are from that someone sitting in front of you, the harder it is to understand where they’re at and what kind of services they need.”

Doctors need a better working relationship with inner-city residents who typically get a lower level of health care, said Dong who started the course in July.

Need to understand impact of poverty

Doctors must understand the impact of poverty, homelessness, mental illness and addictions on the health of those people, she said.

The goals of the class will be to improve the doctor-patient relationship, create realistic health-care strategies and become familiar with inner-city resources, Dong said.

Students work in shelters, inner-city clinics and the remand centre alongside a mentor with experience working with inner-city patients.

“It made me realize that a lot of the people here are very similar to us,” said resident Natalie Choo, one of the first medical students to take the course.

“Just as you use an interpreter for someone who speaks a different language, you just need to figure out a way to elicit the information you need to help these people.”

The course will help Choo, an emergency-medicine resident, work with patients who have addictions or mental health problems.

'They feel judged'

“They feel scared for whatever reason to come to emergency,” Choo said. “They feel judged.”

“I try to say to every client I become involved with that's really not the case.”

Residents are finding the course eye-opening for other reasons as well, said Dong.

“They’re seeing a whole different side to this population to what we traditionally see in acute-care medical services.”

“We usually see patients in crisis, particularly in the emergency department, and down here we see a happy group of people who really look out for each other."