RPAP Reports

To inform its operations and guide its work, the RPAP periodically commissions reports into areas of interest. To date, the RPAP has examined Additional Skills Training, Rural Medical Education, and Rural Physician Retention.

Additional Skills Training and Rural Medical Education

In early 1999, the RPAP discussed improvements in additional skills training for residents and practicing rural physicians, and changes to rural medical education.

The RPAP established two working groups - one each for additional skills training and the rural medical education - to explore the issues and implications and to develop recommendations. After approving the working groups' recommendations in September 1999, implementation plans were developed and approved by the RPAP in March 2000.

The Additional Skills Implementation Plan was completed over several years, while the Rural Medical Education Implementation Plan was fully implemented on 1 July 2001 when the Rural Alberta North and Rural Alberta South nodes of the rural-based, Family Medicine rural stream - the Alberta Rural Family Medicine Network (ARFMN) - accepted its first class of 20 trainees in July 2001 and graduated its first family physicians in June 2003.

At a December 2002 planning session, the RPAP discussed further changes it saw as desired over the next few years. These changes include a need to shift rural medical education towards a training emphasis involving more clinical skills such as obstetrics, and the need to significantly improve the training and the recruitment of Alberta trainees truly committed to and prepared for rural practice.

Discussions with various stakeholders had identified alternatives to current rural medical education initiatives, such as the RPAP-funded rural rotations, that might achieve the RPAP's desired changes. To that end, the RPAP launched a time-limited working group on undergraduate rural medical education to recommend changes to the current RPAP Rural Rotations Program.

In May 2003, the RPAP Working Group on Undergraduate Rural Medical Education (URME WG) began work on reviewing the literature, exploring current practice, and formulating its recommendations. The Working Group filed its report on 16 September 2003. The RPAP approved the recommendations developed by the RPAP Working Group on 11 December 2003. Implementation of the mid-to-long-term recommendations is currently underway.

Retention Work Plan

The RPAP’s first three-year business plan (1999-2001) focused on consolidating the gains from the RPAP’s 1998-1999 recruitment drive. It introduced improvements to rural medical education (the new “rural stream”) and advanced skills acquisition for family physicians (the RPAP Skills Brokers), and began a move to retention as a prime focus.

The RPAP is implementing a work plan “Retention of Rural Physician: An Action Plan for 2001-2002 and Beyond”. The work plan was developed through a multi-stakeholder consultation process, and was approved in March 2001.

A supporting document called "Physician Retention in Rural Alberta: An Update of Pockets of Good News (1994)", was prepared in March 2002 to provide baseline data on the rural physician population and some insight into the successful retention techniques of rural Alberta communities.

Download the Reports

The reports of the RPAP are available in PDF format. If you have not used PDF files before, you may need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is required for viewing PDFs.

Additional Skills Working Group Final Report - 28 September 1999 (127 kb)
Additional Skills Implementation Report - 23 March 2000 (225 kb)

Rural Medical Education Working Group Final Report - 28 September 1999 (165 kb)
Rural Medical Education Implementation Plan - 23 March 2000 (253 kb)

Rural Undergraduate Medical Education Working Group Final Report - 16 September 2003 (237 kb)

Retention of Rural Physician: An Action Plan for 2001-2002 and Beyond - 15 March 2001 (163 kb)
Physician Retention in Rural Alberta: An Update of Pockets of Good News (1994) - 30 March 2002 (1.35 Mb)

To download Acrobat Reader please click here.