Recruitment and Retention

The promotion and development of medical careers and the provision of continuing medical education is one of the first steps in becoming a desired community for health care workers. The Community Development Officer will assist communities in developing strategies for recruitment of physicians in their underserviced area and connect them into a network of physicians seeking communities for practice.  

Once a physician has established a practice in a rural community, the next step is retention. Throughout Ontario, there are over 300 communities who are actively recruiting physicians, which makes sound retention initiatives vital. Communities need to develop strategies to maintain a strong medical community.

ROMP has a number of suggestions for retention packages, they include: improving and maintaining office facilities; working with physicians to develop information technology; support for stress of medical work including shift exchange, and lighter on-call times.

Please visit www.cdoprogram.com for more information on recruitment and retention strategy development with the Rural Ontario Medical Program.