Since 1997, the Peter K. Lindsay Physician Skills Enrichment Program has offered rural physicians the opportunity to upgrade their skills or develop new ones in order to meet the medical needs of their community and surrounding area. Through the program, physicians are able to identify their own training needs and identify or develop learning opportunities to meet those needs. Physicians receive an honorarium that covers their costs and expenses while they are away from their practice. RhPAP also provides physician preceptor compensation for coaching experiences where a preceptor is a required part of the learning.
Training
Typically, RhPAP supports learning opportunities that require a minimum of two weeks up to a maximum of 12 months of study and/or training. This training can include a variety of opportunities from informal coaching with a specialist to more formal education programs. Enrichment training that has been covered in the past includes the following:
- 2-week medical oncology training
- 2.5-month oncology classroom and clinical training
- 1-month Foundation Course in Occupational Medicine
- 2-week Electrocardiogram (ECG) Interpretation Course
- R3 in anesthesia, care of the elderly, palliative care, and enhanced surgical skills (Effective 1 April 2009, CCFP-EM training is no longer supported under the Enrichment Program.)
- 3-week Cardiac Stress Testing training with a preceptor
- Informal coaching between a specialist physician and a general practitioner
Program Eligibility
To be eligible, the following conditions must be met:
- The physician must live and practise in an Alberta community located outside the Census Metropolitan Area boundaries of Calgary or Edmonton with a population of fewer than 15,000 people
- The physician must have practised in that rural community (that meets the definition above) for at least 12 consecutive months
- The physician’s AHS medical leader supports the need for this training and is willing to provide the necessary letters of support for this training
- The physician must be willing to sign a return of service agreement
- The training request has been discussed with an RhPAP Skills Broker before submission of an application package
What you will need to apply
- A letter of support from your zone medical director speaking to the need for your training and that the Authority is willing to provide the resources that may be required (staff, equipment, OR time, etc.) that will allow you to practise the new skills in order to serve the medical needs of the Region.
- If you are applying for a year-long program or a third-year or enhanced skills residency training program, you will be required to submit a copy of your up-to-date curriculum vitae.
Please note: once you initiate the application form, you will have an option to save and continue later. The link that you receive to the form will remain active for 30 days. After 30 days or after you have submitted your application, you will no longer be able to make changes to your application.