Impacts of studying in a regional medical campus on practice location

BACKGROUND: New Brunswick, a bilingual Canadian province without a medical school, negotiated an agreement in 1967 in which places were reserved for francophone medical students in the province of Quebec. In 2006, the Centre de Formation Médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick (CFMNB), a regional medical campus (RMC) of Université de Sherbrooke for its provincial francophone medical students, was established to increase the likelihood of graduates setting up practice in the region. Practice locations of the initial 5 cohorts of CFMNB were analysed to compare data with francophone students trained in Quebec. METHODS: Practice locations were determined through Scott’s Medical Database and provincial public registries. Chi-square and relative risk probability were used to examine the relationship between training location and practice location. RESULTS: Doctors trained at CFMNB were 1.4 times more likely to be practicing in Atlantic Canada compared to those trained at Université de Sherbrooke (main campus) before 2006. Those trained at CFMNB were 1.3 times more likely to go on to practice in the region compared to those trained at Université Laval or Université de Montréal. CONCLUSION: This study supports the hypothesis that individuals completing a medical program in a Francophone RMC in New Brunswick increases the likelihood of them later practicing in the province or in the wider Atlantic Canada region.