During today's Provincial Day of Action, Alberta's medical students are at the Legislative Assembly to advocate for improved access to primary care.🧵on the state of #familymedicine in #Alberta, and on the factors pushing Alberta's medical students away from family medicine.
Every Albertan should have access to team-based primary care led by a family physician, yet over 650,000 do not even have a family physician. Finding a family physician has become increasingly challenging, and family medicine residency positions continue to go unfilled.
Family physicians are the lowest paid physicians in Alberta and have the highest overhead cost. According to @Albertadoctors, approximately 40% of a family physician's pay goes to overhead costs. Family physicians in Alberta are also the lowest paid in Western Canada.
Our recommendations can help address the current challenges that family physicians, patients, and the primary care system are facing in Alberta. Sometimes, simple solutions are the answer.
In preparation for our Provincial Day of Action, we assessed the views of 243 medical students from the @UAlberta and the @UCalgary. 36% of medical students were either likely or very likely to rank family medicine as their top choice for the #carmsmatch.
The top 3 factors increasing interest in family medicine among medical students were the work-life balance (65%), postgraduate training (65%), and scope of practice (60%). Medical students are eager to start careers where they can both care for patients, and for themselves!