New N.B. Medical Society president makes recruitment and retention top priority

The new president of the New Brunswick Medical Society is making recruitment and retention of doctors her top priority. 

To accomplish that, Dr. Paula Keating wants the province to train more doctors and make it easier for internationally trained doctors to work here. 

Keating, who's been a family doctor in Miramichi for 30 years, takes over the role of president from Dr. Michèle Michaud. Her term is for one year.

"One of the ideas I have is around streamlining the recruitment of international medical graduates and facilitating their transition to practice," Keating told Information Morning Moncton on Tuesday. 

She said she plans to work with New Brunswick's regional health authorities and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

"So we look to connect with them and hopefully we can all work together to make the process a little bit easier."

Attracting more N.B.ers

Keating said doctors are more likely to stay in New Brunswick if they're from here and do a residency here. 

That's why she would like to see more seats in medical schools for New Brunswickers and more programs that would allow residents to train in New Brunswick. 

Keating said existing training programs for residents are mainly in family medicine, with "a few spots" in emergency and internal medicine. 

Her goal is to increase the variety of residency training programs available. 

"So, for example, in psychiatry, in general surgery, so that there are a broader range of specialties where residents can train within New Brunswick.

"And we know that residents are more likely to stay where they train, not necessarily medical students but residents,"  Keating said.

"A train and retain strategy, if you will."

She said it's also easier to keep students and residents in New Brunswick than to recruit from elsewhere.

Keating said she's heard directly from New Brunswick-raised medical students that they would love to stay, "but there just are not enough spots for all of them to stay and train here. So they do have to go elsewhere." 

After physician recruitment and retention, Keating said, her second priority is "reinforcing primary care."

She said more needs to be done to support family physicians in New Brunswick.

"The medical profession continues to deal with financial pressures caused by inflation, and economic factors are contributing to a lack of interest in family medicine among medical students."

To make family medicine more appealing, "we need to find ways to alleviate some of the burden that family physicians face in managing an office, both financially and administratively, and this may attract more students to choose family medicine."

The more doctors there are in the province to share the workload, "then it's less onerous and cumbersome on any one individual," said Keating. 

She says establishing good mentorship programs will also help make New Brunswick a more attractive place for new doctors to set up shop.