Professional Association of Resident Physicians of Alberta President Pauwlina Cyca speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about medical student recruitment and retention.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: This is Match Day. How did medical residency positions in Alberta fare in the second round of matching results?
Pauwlina Cyca: You know what? We are actually thrilled. The reason for that, of course, is because we’ve expanded our seats. This year the University of Calgary expanded the number of family medicine resident seats available for medical students to match in Alberta, both in the rural blocks and in the urban blocks.
This expansion led to more seats being available, but also more opportunity to attract new physicians to our province, and also to increase the number of physicians who are available in rural and remote Alberta.
After the second round match, we have completely filled all of the rural seats as well as the Department of National Defense seats as well. So given the fact that we’ve expanded the seats in Alberta, and there’s a national trend of fewer medical students and graduates applying to family medicine as a whole, we actually proportionally matched more from a smaller pool. So overall, this is quite a good news story.
MH: In that first round, there were 31 seats unfilled. This time, it’s maybe three. Two for the University of Calgary, and one for the U of A.
PC: This time, there are 12 unmatched seats at the University of Calgary, and there are four unmatched in the Grand Prairie site. Again, putting this into context, last year there were 86 seats that were filled. This year there are 90 seats that are filled, and all of the rural seats are filled.
This is really what we’re aiming for, is to increase the amount of access to medical care and to primary medical care, to rural and remote Albertans, and to fill those spots in emergency rooms, in long term care facilities, and so on.
We’ve made great strides towards that, and like anything, any change, there does take some time for things to settle and for trends to be realized. Just like going to the gym, you wouldn’t do ten bicep curls and expect to be completely built right after that. So this is the first year of this expanded change, and we expect momentum here on out as well.
MH: What kind of role do these new doctors play in completing this training?
PC: Part of the new role that residents fill is to carry the torch of mentorship. As a resident physician, you need mentors, you need preceptors to teach you, and these physicians need to be practicing in the province to do this.
Resident physicians also will precept junior learners and medical students and so resident physicians play more than the healthcare role, they also play the role of the teacher when resident physicians finish and transition to practice.
That’s the stage that I’m currently in. In two short months, we will hopefully then take on learners of our own and continue to expand the program and continue to teach. That torch of mentorship is really critical in ensuring that our programs continue to flourish, as well as continue to nurture a really strong learning environment for medical learners.
MH: What makes our province a desirable destination? Where does Alberta register on the radar of medical students?
PC: I’m originally not from Alberta so there’s several different things that I can tell you about Alberta practice and why it’s beneficial. First and foremost, there has been an expansion of programs, not just seats, but actually recruitment and retention strategies to attract more medical learners to the province. The first being the Rural and Remote scholarship and bursary program, which enables medical graduates, who have matched to a family medicine residency, access to funds to help them continue on with their training and alleviate the considerable debt that they end up accumulating and consuming throughout their medical training.
Having access to this funding as a medical graduate, rather than waiting until they are transitioning to practice, is very unique. It’s unique to Alberta and it’s incredibly beneficial.
The second thing would be that our compensation for resident physicians is now up to market competition levels, but we also have additional benefits. For example, our long term disability payments are paid for us, so those premiums don’t come out of our own pocket.
Third and final, this is actually a personal anecdote, I have been a health-care professional outside of medicine for over 15 years. I’ve practiced all over this country, all the way from the maritime provinces to B.C. and the Yukon, and I can say without a doubt that Alberta is one of the most comprehensive places to practice health care.
It is the easiest place to access patient information as a health-care provider in order to provide that continuity and that understanding of the nuances of their unique therapeutic condition. And this doesn’t exist elsewhere, it has been incredibly challenging in other jurisdictions to practice effectively. Alberta, despite the challenges that most jurisdictions face, we continue to have these very strong and unifying, comprehensive ways to practice medicine.
MH: What is the impact of seeing family doctors already here packing up and leaving?
PC: Having health care as a lever for government advocacy has been long standing and will continue. This is a lever that we as organizations will, of course, pull in order to gain traction in certain areas. That’s not new, nor will it ever go away.
Hearing the political part of it can be a very challenging message for new graduates to hear, and I’m sure that that does have an impact on where people choose to practice, which is part of the reason that we want to get the message out that practicing medicine in Alberta is incredibly cost effective, it’s incredibly comprehensive, it’s very well supported, and there’s an increased focus on that support.
However, nonetheless, we need to also consider that public messaging that is reiterated over and over and over again, having family doctors leave and go to other provinces has been alarming, especially for my cohort.
From my cohort, there were 18 individuals that had originally intended on leaving the province and now have decided to stay. When we were onboarding the new match residents, in fact, I called some of them today to welcome them to the program.
These individuals all said that it was actually their first choice to come to Alberta. So even though we may be matching fewer, even though there may be that message in the media, the people who are coming are eager and that’s really important to have high-quality residents.
