Stay on MD: Recruitment and retention factors for Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick graduates

Kathleen MacMillan (a,b), Sarah Melville (a), Alexandra Fournier (a),  Peggy Alexiadis Brown (b), Dr. Daniel Dutton (a,b), and Dr. Keith Brunt (a,b)
(a) Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick
(b) Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University
 
​Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick (DMNB) opened its doors to its first class of medical students in September 2010. It was created, in part, to promote training, recruitment and retention of physicians in NB. Although DMNB has been operating for ten years, no data shows why graduates of DMNB establish their practice in the areas they do, and if they are retained in these areas.

Objectives:

1. To evaluate where DMNB graduates from Class of 2014 currently practice, and determine why/whether they chose to practice in those locations.
2. To evaluate where DMNB’s prospective Class of 2021 wants to practice, and why they are choosing to practice in those locations
3. To evaluate how many DMNB graduates are currently practising in the Maritime Provinces.
4. To identify and compare features that influence location of choice and decision to practice in NB.

DMNB graduates of the inaugural class will be surveyed to gather data on their perspectives regarding their choice in practice locations and whether they will choose to stay in these communities. The DMNB class of 2021 will also be surveyed, and their thoughts on where they would like to practice and initial choice of specialty will be collected. Their findings will be compared to the inaugural class. Quantitative data regarding migration patterns and physician salaries in NB will be summarized using charts and data that will be extracted from CIHI. Trends will be compared with the data collected from the surveys.