Most rural practitioners experience great difficulty in arranging locum relief
to attend continuing education activities. Often rural family physicians find
that when they do attend continuing education programs that they are of little
value to them as they are not pitched at the appropriate level.
There is a need for specific tailored continuing education and professional
development programs to meet the needs of rural family physicians. Generally
these programs should be developed by rural doctors for rural doctors. Rural
Medical Education Centres provide a very appropriate focus for developing such
continuing education programs.
These programs should recognise the pre-existing knowledge and skills of rural
family physicians which have often been developed through dealing with clinical
problems in relative professional isolation, rather than through formal
training. The programs should be responsive to the specific learning needs of
the doctors which usually involves a focus that is practical, case based and
problem oriented. The aim of such continuing education programs should be to
empower the learner and thus extend and expand the doctors knowledge and
clinical skills.
Continuing education program should also be accessible to rural practitioners
which means locating them in rural regional centres rather than major cities.
Also, the use of distance education methods to bring continuing education to
rural practitioners is to be encouraged. This includes not only traditional
published materials, but also the use of new technologies including
teleconferencing, electronic mail and satellite television, and other
developments in modern information technology.
Another important form of continuing education and professional development is
short term hands-on clinical attachments in larger hospitals. These should be
encouraged and facilitated through liaison with the specialists in these
hospitals. Release from the practice maybe facilitated by rotating locum
relief schemes where a group of rural practices share a rotating locum.
The opportunity to do sabbaticals or exchanges in other countries can broaden
experience for practicing rural doctors and help develop new approaches to
medical practice, medical education, and health care delivery.