A Resident-Informed Path Forward for Canada’s Primary Care Crisis

RDoC convened a Family Medicine Team to capture resident perspectives on the state of Family Medicine training and practice. This group reflected the breadth of Family Medicine training across Canada, including urban, rural, and remote settings; Indigenous and Black communities; Enhanced Skills programs; the Medical Officer Training program; and representation from the CFPC Section of Residents.

Identifying Pressures & Opportunities

Through a professionally facilitated process, residents identified key pressures within the training environment, expressed concerns about entering a profession under strain, and articulated opportunities for meaningful system-level improvement. They also outlined what they saw as opportunities for RDoC to engage and help the situation.

A Resident-Informed Path Forward

Following extensive consultation with Family Medicine residents, RDoC published A Resident-Informed Path Forward for Canada’s Primary Care Crisis.

The paper emphasizes that the crisis is not simply a workforce supply issue, but rather the predictable result of policies, perceptions, training environments, and practice expectations that discourage physicians from both entering Family Medicine training and sustaining comprehensive primary care practices over time.

“We’re not asking for less responsibility. We’re asking for a system in which comprehensive Family Medicine remains viable, and in which doing it well doesn’t require sacrificing our health, our financial stability, or our lives outside of medicine.”

– Dr. Nicholas Preobrazenski, Family Medicine Physician

Seven Recommendations

Through seven actionable recommendations, the position paper asserts that responding to the family doctor shortage in Canada requires meaningfully listening to the voices of those who have chosen to pursue Family Medicine as a specialty and thoughtfully responding to the core factors that shape their decision-making on how they want to deliver care after finishing training and in the years that follow.

1. Measure and act on drivers of practice choice, including administrative burden, compensation, team-based supports, alignment with personal and professional priorities (e.g. financial stability, work-life balance)
2. Align training environments with sustainable real-world practice models
3. Improve access to sustainable compensation and practice-support models at entry to practice and throughout a physician’s career
4. Reduce administrative and operational barriers to comprehensive care by funding shared infrastructure, compensating non-clinical work, and supporting team-based practice options
5. Operationalize and establish fatigue risk management as a foundational standard across the residency training and practice continuum.
6. Dismantle the hidden curriculum and reform professional culture
7. Advance equity and anti-racism in training and practice

Read the Position Paper here:

A Resident-Informed Path Forward for Canada’s Primary Care Crisis – EN

RDoC’s Commitment to Action

RDoC is committed to translating the position paper’s recommendations into meaningful action by building on its existing advocacy, programs and partnerships. This includes challenging the hidden curriculum, amplifying resident voices, advancing sustainable training and practice through fatigue risk management, strengthening accreditation and anti-racism initiatives, and supporting resident engagement and evidence-informed advocacy. Through continued collaboration with the Focus on Family Medicine Task Force, the CFPC and our provincial partners, RDoC will seek opportunities to contribute to lasting improvements in Family Medicine training and practice.