Manitoba Rural Physician Action Plan

Increase the intake of students from a rural background into medical school

Research shows that students with a rural background are more likely than urban students to make a rural community their home upon graduation. Training takes many years, and the adjustment to the experience can be especially difficult for rural students. The action plan will address these issues by:

• developing a comprehensive campaign to encourage rural students to consider a career in medicine;
  
• providing academic and social support for rural students choosing to pursue a career in medicine;
  
• advocating for changes in admission policies within the Faculty of Medicine to ensure equity for rural applicants; and
  
• providing support for the Manitoba Medical Student Rural Interest Group, an organization that promotes medicine as a career in rural and northern areas and provides peer support to such students.
  

Increase rural training opportunities for undergraduate medical students.

Currently, few medical students are exposed to rural medicine until the third year of the program. This may be too late to influence their decision about where to practice. As part of the strategy, the province will support efforts to:

• introduce rural medicine in the first and second years of the undergraduate program;
  
• expand the clerkship training program in the third and fourth years to include more speciality rural electives, while maintaining the existing family medicine program; and
  
• restructure the current summer work experience program to engage medical students in rural health research through a B.Sc. medicine program.
  

Expand rural training opportunities for residents in family medicine and medical specialities.

Currently, only six of the 24 residents in the family medicine residency training program are in the rural stream, spending one month in rural Manitoba in the first year of the program and the entire second year in the Parklands Rural Residency Program. Under the new plan:

• the number of residents in the rural family medicine postgraduate training program will be increased from six to 15 per year;
  
• training sites for the expanded family medicine physicians program will be developed in collaboration with the regional health authorities (RHAs);
  
• resident training will be expanded to include rotations in more medical specialities in rural Manitoba; and
  
• a deferred salary program will be explored with the RHAs to support physicians interested in additional training.
  

Improve the capacity of rural Continuing Medical Education (CME) to provide advanced skills training programs to rural practitioners.

Linking continuing medical education to community need is a critical component of the Manitoba Rural Physician Action Plan.

• The management of CME programs for rural family physicians will be co-ordinated by the Office of Rural and Northern Health.
  
• The province will provide support for the delivery of advanced skills CME certificate programs.
  
• The number of positions available for one-year advanced skills family medicine programs will be doubled from five to 10 positions.
  
• The opportunities for physicians to gain advanced training in other areas such as care of the elderly, psychiatry and obstetrics will be explored.
  

Support programs for foreign-trained physicians working in under-serviced areas of the province to assist them in obtaining full licensure will be developed and delivered.

Provide infrastructure support to ensure co-ordination between medical education programs and community needs.

Creating an administrative body linked to rural communities to co-ordinate service with medical education and community needs is critical to the success of the plan. An Office of Rural and Northern Health will be established to:

• play a key role assisting health authorities, medical students with rural backgrounds and physicians;
  
• develop financial supports for rural students interested in pursuing medicine as a career;
  
• assist in development of training sites for undergraduates and postgraduates, including co-ordinating living accommodations for students, residents and locum;
  
• co-ordinate rural continuing medical education and advanced skills programs for rural physicians with community need; and
  
• administer the Manitoba Locum Tenens Program.