Does rural generalist focused medical school and family medicine training make a difference? Memorial University of Newfoundland outcomes.

Introduction: Rural recruitment and retention of physicians is a global issue. The Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, was established as a rural-focused medical school with a social accountability mandate that aimed to meet the healthcare needs of a sparse population distributed over a large landmass as well as the needs of other rural and remote areas of Canada. This study aimed to assess whether Memorial medical degree (MD) and postgraduate (PG) programs were effective at producing physicians for their province and rural physicians for Canada compared with other Canadian medical schools.

From pipelines to pathways: the Memorial experience in educating doctors for rural generalist practice.

Context: This report describes the community context, concept and mission of The Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Memorial), Canada, and its 'pathways to rural practice' approach, which includes influences at the pre-medical school, medical school experience, postgraduate residency training, and physician practice levels. Memorial's pathways to practice helped Memorial to fulfill its social accountability mandate to populate the province with highly skilled rural generalist practitioners. Programs/interventions/initiatives: The 'pathways to rural practice' include initiatives in four stages: (1) before admission to medical school; (2) during undergraduate medical training (medical degree (MD) program); (3) during postgraduate vocational residency training; and (4) after postgraduate vocational residency training.

Pathways to rural family practice at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Objective: To assess Memorial University of Newfoundland's (MUN's) commitment to a comprehensive pathways approach to rural family practice, and to determine the national and provincial effects of applying this approach.

Design: Analysis of anonymized secondary data.

Setting: Canada.

Wolves adapt territory size, not pack size to local habitat quality.

1. Although local variation in territorial predator density is often correlated with habitat quality, the causal mechanism underlying this frequently observed association is poorly understood and could stem from facultative adjustment in either group size or territory size. 2.

Evaluation of the usefulness of simulated clinical examination in family-medicine residency program.

Background: This study reports on an evaluation of the usefulness of the Simulated Clinical Examination (SCE) method as a means of assessing the clinical-skill competencies of entering Postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) family-medicine residents.

Methods: PGY1 family-medicine residents participated in a SCE encompassing clinical encounters with standardized patients. Residents were asked to complete pre-evaluation and post-evaluation surveys, and faculty and residents participated in separate focus groups.