Following the stories

Amy Hughes (Nick Pearce Photo)

Amy Hughes remembers the exact moment when she knew she wanted to practise family medicine. It was during an obstetrical rotation in her hometown of Saint John.

“I was in the room for a delivery with this really lovely couple and it was so special to be there,” she recalls. “I realized that I want to know what happens to them. I want to see that little girl grow up. I want to see her siblings come into the world and I want to help that family through all the stages of their lives. I realized that I couldn’t just walk away without knowing the rest of their story.”

It’s that idea of relationship-building that led Ms. Hughes into medicine in the first place. A leader among her peers, she is co-president of her graduating class and has served on the executive of the Dalhousie Medical Students’ Society as VP of Medical Education. She’s worked with her classmates on an extensive research survey of Maritime Canadians living with cystic fibrosis and has travelled the country presenting her findings. And her experiences representing students on several curriculum and administration committees in the Faculty of Medicine inspired a love of medical education that she hopes will continue into her professional years.

Ultimately, for her, all roads lead back to New Brunswick. She’s a member of the implementation committee for the proposed Dalhousie medical education program in Saint John and she hopes to play a role in the program as it moves forward. And she’ll be doing her residency in family medicine in Moncton, starting this July.

“New Brunswick is home,” she explains. “It’s where my parents are, it’s where my husband’s family is, it’s where my siblings are. New Brunswick has formed who I am. Those are the people that helped get me here, and those are the people that I want to be there for as a clinician.”