Physicians who follow a rural residency route are more likely to locate and stay in rural Alberta.
These are the findings of “Choosing the Rural Route”, a study undertaken by RPAP | Health Workforce for Alberta to further understand the impact of the Alberta Rural Family Medicine Network (ARFMN) rural residency program on access to healthcare in rural Alberta.
According to the study, the Alberta Rural Family Medicine Network—a collaborative venture of the RPAP, the family medicine departments of the universities of Alberta and Calgary, Alberta’s rural physicians and Alberta Health Services—continues to have a strong positive impact on the attraction, distribution and retention of physicians for rural practice.
The study’s conclusions, based on physician data dating back to 2001, indicates that physicians who complete their residency with ARFMN’s two branches, Rural Alberta North (RAN) and Rural Alberta South (RAS), are not only more likely to settle in rural Alberta compared to their traditional counterparts, but were also more likely to remain in the province over the same period.