Conversations on access to rural healthcare focus frequently on the physician. For many, family physicians act as doorways to treatments, check-ins and specialty care.
Amidst the struggle of many communities to recruit new graduate medical students in rural and remote regions, Dr. Newbery proposes that more attention should be given to the retention of existing healthcare professionals. Learning for new medical graduates is primarily an apprenticeship. Community doctors are a resource for the recruitment of new physicians.
As Dr. Newbery states, “retained physicians are like gravity”. The wealth of knowledge and experience they can pass to new graduates is insurmountable. Efforts should be made to retain existing healthcare professionals to recruit new professionals to the area.
Webinar: “Retention - Why is it the Key to Recruitment?”
On Tuesday, December 3rd, Dr. Sarah Newbery, the inaugural Associate Dean of Physician Workforce Strategy at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) University, presented a lecture on “Retention - Why is it the Key to Recruitment?”
As a practicing rural generalist family physician of over 28 years in the community of Marathon, Dr. Newberry shared insightful information about how she was recruited through an existing physician. Several decades ago, she and six other new doctors were mentored by a local physician which prevented the emergency department closure and continued access to care for the community.
She used her experience to pivot into a systematic framework of how we can implement a greater capacity for communities to recruit and retain physicians.
Dr. Newbery was joined by a panel to help further this discussion including:
Aaron Lewis, a fourth-year medical student at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry in London, ON. Born and raised rurally in Newfoundland and Kincardine, ON, He plans to return to rural practice and train at a rural residency site in July.
Jimmy Chiu, CEO of Huron Health System comprising AMGH hospital in Goderich and Exeter Hospital in South Huron.
Gwen Devereaux, physician recruitment lead for Huron Health System. Gwen is a registered nurse and the President of Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health
To watch this lecture in full, you can watch the video below:
Resources to Recruit and Retain
For communities interested in recruiting new grads, there are some things that may be helpful for you to know as a recruiter, and as a physician in practice. A CMAJ article with research findings and some infographics to summarize the findings are linked here:
Dr. Newbery as the Associate Dean of Physician Workforce Strategy at NOSM has cultivated a host of educational materials on planning, recruiting and retaining.
In a broader scope, there are many frameworks and tools that can help inform best practices for recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals in rural communities:
An international framework. The Making it Work: Framework for Rural Remote Workforce Stability describes the necessary elements of a strategy to ensure the recruitment and retention of the right professionals to provide needed services in rural and remote locations. View the website or download a brief overview or full framework description
The Rural Health Service Decision Guide is a 5-step, systematic process to making objective, evidence-based decisions for sustainably delivering health services to rural populations.
Healthcare Excellence Canada hosts several tools for Promising Practices for Retaining the Healthcare Workforce in Northern, Rural, and Remote Communities
Attract Connect Stay is an innovative, community-led solution that supports communities in rural areas with physician workforce challenges. It is running with success in Australia but was conceived based on work that was initiated in Marathon, Ontario.
The HFO (Health Force Ontario) recruitment essentials toolkit is available here:
The Community Assessment Visit Program. There is funding available to bring physicians and their spouse/partner/family to visit a community to which they may be considering relocation. For more information, check out the program information on the Community Assessment Visit Program webpage.
Federal Policies and Information
There have been many proposed points-of-action for federal and provincial authorities to restructure healthcare access through productive policies. For example, Federal recommendations summaries from 2002 are from the Rural health in Rural Hands document and Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada – Final Report. More recently, the ROMA (Royal Ontario Medical Association) report Jan 2024 re: Rural health services access is here.
Taken verbatim from: Ministerial Advisory Council on Rural Health, Rural Health in Rural Hands: Strategic Directions for Rural, Remote, Northern and Aboriginal Communities, Health Canada, November 2002, here are two different points of recommendations that can be highlighted:
Building Healthy Communities 1.1 That Health Canada recognize that rural, remote and northern communities are different from urban communities, and that this difference be reflected in its policies and programs.
Health Human Resources 6.1 That the Minister of Health work with provincial and territorial colleagues to develop a nationwide health human resources strategy, with particular emphasis on recruitment and retention issues for rural, remote, northern and Aboriginal communities.
About Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health
Founded in 2008 in the community of Seaforth, ON, Gateway CERH is a not-for-profit rural health research organization run by a community-based volunteer board of directors. Gateway CERH's main mission is to better the health and quality of life of rural residents through research, education and communication. Learn more on the Gateway CERH website at: https://www.gatewayruralhealth.ca/ and follow on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
A brief disclaimer: the views expressed in these lectures may not necessarily reflect Gateway CERH’s views or opinions, but we believe in providing a platform for a range of perspectives and thoughtful discussion.
Gateway CERH has a full library of lectures and information about the upcoming presentation that can be found on our website: https://www.gatewayruralhealth.ca/lectureseries
Or watch all past lecture online on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GatewayCERH/videos
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