Dear Jim and RuralMedders,
There are many factors contributing to the increasing difficulty in attracting
the numbers of medical school graduates we need to enter rural family practice,
and indeed to enter family practice in any setting. Included are issues related
to both the practice and training ( medical school and residency program )
milieu.. While the public consistently indicates how highly it values the role
of family doctors, our system and schools still do not come close to recognizing
family physicians in the same way that specialists are acknowledged. In the
medical schools both the admissions priorities and the roles for family doctors
in the undergraduate curriculum remain areas of concern for us. If our schools
are committed to helping to ensure Canada's future will include appropriate
numbers of rural and urban family doctors, the issues related to the need for
more family/rural practice focused admissions policies and for better supported
and more clinically relevant medical school teaching roles for family doctors in
both academic and community settings must be addressed and change must be
introduced as quickly as possible. Admissions
Package
Over the past few months, the CFPC has been meeting with medical school and government leaders to emphasize the urgency of addressing the challenges before us- including the way family and rural practice remain inappropriately undervalued by those ultimately responsible for both both the practice and teaching environments. Included have been meetings with the Minister and Deputy Minister of Health, Secretary of State for Rural Development Breeding Young Professionals and Healthier Rural Communities, leaders of the federal opposition parties, opposition health critics, MD- MP's, Deans of medical schools Academic Leaders Deans Organizations, and many others. On April 26- 27 we will be meeting with the Admissions Deans and Undergraduate Deans of Canada's 16 medical schools during ACMC in Quebec City. We intend to press again for the kinds of changes needed to the areas for which these Deans are responsible.
The discussions on RuralMed related to admissions of rural students to medical schools have been very helpful. Along with the ongoing leadership provided by the SRPC , we hope that the CFPC's voice will help create greatly augmented understanding of and support for family/rural doctors across Canada and that the message to our colleagues in family practice and to students considering their future careers will soon be that family practice - rural and urban -offers one of the most rewarding and highly respected careers in all of medicine.
Keep up the great work and the terrific dialogue ... and please keep us
posted regarding the work of this SRPC Sub cte.
Cal Gutkin
Calvin Gutkin, MD, CCFP (EM), FCFP
Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
Ph 800-387-6197 x 237
905-629-0900 x 237
Fax 905-629-0893
www.cfpc.ca
My response:
Dear Cal
I appreciated the chance to speak at CFPC in Montreal. I am even more appreciative of you RuralMed response above. Your focus on admissions and leadership in medical schools is on target. I have added some links to various other items such as rural development, academic leadership, rural background data, etc. I have also added some most disturbing figures regarding declines in admissions of rural background students despite constant MCAT application figures over the most recent decade.
These may help in the policy or negotiation process. It has been frustrating working in the US where there is little recognition of the importance of admissions of the right people from mainstream medicine, medical education or family medicine. The studies and data are clear. The willingness to act is not. May your journey be fruitful. Less studies more action is a good policy for all of us!
Robert C. Bowman, M.D., Co-Chairman
Rural Medical Educators Group of the National Rural Health Association
UNMC Department of Family Medicine Director of Rural Health Education and
Research
983075 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68198-3075
(402) 559-8873 or fax at -8118
Email: rbowman@unmc.edu
http://www.ruralmedicaleducation.org or
http://www.unmc.edu/Community/ruralmeded/