Faculty of medicine campaigns to recruit more family doctors
MICHAEL OLSON STAFF
A new faculty of medicine recruitment initiative was announced last week, designed to get high school and university students informed and interested in pursuing a career in family medicine.
Believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, the campaign will aim to attract greater numbers to the field of family medicine, using billboards, radio spots, materials sent to high schools, and posters set up in universities and hospitals.
The faculty of medicine at the U of M, along with Manitoba Health and the Office of Rural and Northern Health, unveiled its plans for the recruitment campaign on Oct. 23.
This project, which has been in the works for roughly three years, has been launched in response to a shortage of doctors in Manitoba. “Some families in Manitoba
don’t have a doctor,” said Kimberley Corneillie, communications officer at the faculty of medicine, “and others are waiting to get one.”
Ultimately, the faculty of medicine hopes that this program will increase the number of students aspiring to become family doctors. Currently, there are approximately 1,000 family doctors in Manitoba.
“We’re probably the first university in Canada to look at using commercial marketing to market a career as a product,” said Larry Reynolds, department head of family medicine at the U of M. “We have a great product, but if people aren’t buying it, we have to understand why not and get our message out to them.”
According to Reynolds, the primary idea behind this campaign is to advocate the message that family medicine is a very rewarding career intellectually, personally, and of course, financially. “It is also very diverse,” said Reynolds. “You can reinvent yourself in five or 10 years.”
“Our message [to future medical students] is that you are becoming an expert generalist; you’re the medical stem cell of the health care system . . . You can differentiate to meet the needs of patients and communities,” said Reynolds.
Coinciding with this campaign, the department of family medicine has set up a website at www.nextdoctors. com. This site has been set up to answer any questions university and high school students may have about a career in family medicine. The department of family medicine encourages all of those interested to visit the site.
The radio-spot and billboard portion of the recruitment campaign is expected to run for six to eight weeks. Moreover, the poster and website sections of the campaign will remain in motion for about two years.
At the end of its run, the campaign will receive an evaluation based on such criteria as contacts with students, visits to the nextdoctors.com website, and numbers of students entering family medicine.
This year, the U of M faculty of medicine accepted 100 new students — 33 of whom were enrolled into family medicine. There are currently 66 students enrolled in family medicine at the U of M.
According to Reynalds, Over the past three to four years, 80-90 per cent of medical graduates have remained within Manitoba, as opposed to the roughly 40-50 per cent retention rate of five years ago.
