Are We Keeping The Doctors We Train? A Look at Whether Newfoundland and Labrador Retains Graduates of MUN's Medical School

Lead Researcher and Department
Dr. Maria Mathews: Dept of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University

Summary
The medical school at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) was established in 1967, in part, to make Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), particularly its rural communities, less dependent on other medical schools for doctors.

We conducted this study to determine where MUN-trained doctors are practicing and the extent to which the medical school is supplying physicians for rural NL. We also wanted to identify factors that predict where MUN graduates end up working.

We analyzed 26 years of data from the MUN Faculty of Medicine class lists, alumni database, post-graduate databases, and the 2004 Southam Medical database. All MUN graduates were included in our analysis.

We found the medical school at MUN is making a major contribution to the supply of fully-licensed doctors practicing in the province, including its rural communities. Physicians trained at MUN make up more than half of all doctors in the province, and about one-fifth of those working in the province's rural areas.

Initiatives that encourage more rural students to become doctors and encourage Memorial graduates to stay in the province to do their family medicine residency could further increase numbers of locally trained physicians working in rural communities.

Dates
1973 -1998

Keywords
Physician Retention, Rural Physician Retention, Medical Graduates, Retention Predictors, Rural health

Locations
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
St. John's

Industry Sectors
Health Care and Social Assistance

Thematic Categories
Physicians (Health)
Rural Development
Social Conditions (Community Development)

Departments
Faculty of Medicine (STJ)