SRPC launches its CME/Locum Program
Can J Rural Med vol 3 (1):47
© 1998 Society of Rural Physicians of Canada
Last fall the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (SRPC) successfully launched its CME/Locum Program in St. Anthony, Nfld. The program, a first for Canada, offers rural communities the SRPC's Rural Critical Care (RCC) course modules along with locum relief by the doctors giving the course.
The SRPC sent Drs. Keith MacLellan, a family physician and SRPC president, Earle Potvin, a general surgeon, and Tom O'Neill, a GP anesthetist, all from Shawville, Que., to Newfoundland. There they gave several RCC courses on peritoneal lavage, paracentesis, insertion of chest tubes, pediatric crises and rapid-sequence induction to a group of 12 doctors from St. Anthony and the surrounding areas. When they were not teaching the workshops, Drs. O'Neill and Potvin worked shifts at the Charles S. Curtis Memorial Hospital in St. Anthony and Dr. MacLellan did a locum at Roddickton Community Health Centre and at Bonne Bay Hospital in Norris Point.
According to Dr. Kweku Dankwa, the pathologist who organized the day-long RCC course to coincide with a 3-day CME conference, the program was well received by all the rural doctors. He himself found it useful to spruce up his own skills. "I went to all the workshops," he said. "It was a useful thing and it introduced me to new ways of doing things like abdominal taps." He was impressed with the techniques of using different grades of dilatation for inserting chest tubes and felt that it would not frighten either the patient or the doctor who might be doing it for the first time. He was also impressed with the locum service that came with the package. "Without [the visiting doctors] offering to do the locums, a lot of the doctors in the outskirts would not have been able to attend the rest of the conference. It is very difficult to organize locums to come to the rural areas in Canada so [the CME/Locum Program] is quite a good idea."
It also turned out to be interesting for the visiting doctors, who had an opportunity to visit other parts of Canada and make some money doing so. Dr. Potvin, who taught chest tubes and peritoneal lavage, said, "It was very enlightening. It is interesting to see how other people manage their practice and how the hospital manages their administration and to have contact with other people from other areas who share the same comradeship and the same problems."
He felt that a regular conference format cannot impart the same experience because with the CME/Locum Program, "You live with them and you experience what they have to experience and you can share thoughts over a period of time as you're working with them. You're not just visiting but you're working in the field and so you have a much better feel for things."
One problem to be ironed out is that if the teaching doctors take locums so that the local doctors can attend the course, then who gives the course?
"It's quite clearly a problem," says Dr. MacLellan. "The SRPC's plan is to give the workshops several times over a week and have local doctors cover for their colleagues. The RCC doctors can then take locums when they are not teaching the workshops, to give the local docs a short holiday."
Interested? Contact Dr. MacLellan, Box 609, Shawville QC J0X 2Y0.
