RURAL FAMILY MEDICINE TRAINING IN CANADA

OBJECTIVE To examine the status of postgraduate family medicine traini ng that occurs in rural family practice settings in Canada and to iden tify problems and how they are addressed. DESIGN A retrospective quest ionnaire sent to all 18 Canadian family medicine training programs fol lowed by a focus group discussion of results. SETTING Canadian univers ity family medicine training programs. PARTICIPANTS Chairs or program directors of all 18 Canadian family medicine training programs and peo ple attending a workshop at the Section of Teachers of Family Medicine annual meeting. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Extent of training offered, edu cational models used, common problems for residents and teachers. RESU LTS Nine of 18 programs offer some family medicine training in a rural practice setting to some or all of their first-year family medicine r esidents, and 99 of 684 first-year family medicine residents did some training in a rural practice. All programs offer some training in a ru ral practice to some or all of the second-year residents, and 567 of 7 02 second-year residents did some training in a rural setting. In 12 o f 18 programs, a rural family medicine block is compulsory. Education models for training for rural family practice vary widely. Isolation, accommodation, and supervision are common problems for rural family me dicine residents. Isolation and faculty development are common problem s for rural physician-teachers. Programs use various approaches to add ress these problems. CONCLUSIONS The variety of postgraduate training models for rural family practice used in the 18 training programs refl ects different regional health care needs and resources. There is no c ommon rural family medicine curriculum. Networking through a rural phy sician-teachers group or a faculty of rural medicine could further the development of education for rural family practice.