Chris Novak is a graduate of the MD class of 2016
When Chris Novak started his medical education, he expected it to be tough. "I thought it would be four years of very hard-nosed discipline and work," he says. "It was definitely a lot of hard work, but the people made it so much better."
He describes the MD class of 2016 as a tight-knit community. "Everyone in my class is really close, and I made a lot of great friends."
The Calgary native was drawn to the U of A because of its reputation as a first-class medical school. Moving away from home for school also appealed to him. After spending eight years here as an undergraduate and medical student, Novak is excited to stay in Edmonton and start the Pediatric Residency Training Program in July.
Though some students have difficulties choosing a specialty, pediatrics was a clear choice for Novak. He worked in a summer camp for many years, which inspired him to continue working with children. Novak is good with kids and has a naturally happy disposition, which he hopes will put his patients at ease.
"I want to make the kids feel listened to, safe and valued," he says. "You have to be really organized and on the ball to make sure you are making the right decisions for your patients. There are so many opportunities to help kids that have been dealt bad cards."
He was also inspired by the pediatricians he worked with during his pediatric rotation at the Stollery Children's Hospital. "I loved my peds rotation. The community at the Stollery was great, and that experience showed me it was a place I really wanted to be."
Throughout his education, Novak made time for volunteering and leadership opportunities. He was the Medical Students' Association (MSA) president for his class. He says contributing to the MSA pushed him out of his comfort zone. "It wasn't something I ever saw myself doing, but I had some really supportive classmates who encouraged me and I'm glad I did it."
He is proud of the changes the MSA made for students and credits the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry for listening to students' voices. One accomplishment he is particularly proud of is making changes to the absence policy to make it easier for students to balance their schoolwork with their wellness.
Novak was also involved with PedsCases, a free online source of interactive cases, podcasts, videos and links that students can access to supplement their education. So far PedCases has more than 55,000 unique visitors from more than 150 countries and more than 825,000 podcast downloads. Novak plans to continue to expand and develop PedCases as a resident. "I'm interested in education and would like to involve that in my career, so this was a cool way to do that as a med student."He isn't exactly sure where in the broad field of pediatrics he wants to end up, but he would like to continue to seek out leadership opportunities. "I think it will be hard to balance-you have a lot of responsibilities when you're on call-but I think leadership is something that really inspires me and keeps me motivated, so I really want to keep that up."
Novak emphasizes the value that his extracurricular activities brought to his medical education. To the incoming class of 2020, he would recommend that they get involved as much as they can to get the most out of their medical school experience.
"I would definitely tell incoming students to try things out. There are so many different ways to get involved outside of the classroom."