Insights into the evolving demographics of anesthesia human resources in Canada

Excerpt

Planning human resources in any healthcare sector and in anesthesiology, in particular, is a complex task. Human resource planning (HRP) indicators, such as the physician to population ratio, physician utilization, and job vacancy rates, reflect supply and do not consider patients’ needs for physician services. A major component of planning for an adequate future supply of practitioners, in any jurisdiction, is an understanding of factors that contribute to the retention or loss of trainees within the specific province or territory being considered. In this issue of the Journal, Suess et al.1 provide some unique insights into our understanding of this aspect of supply. They examine the origin and destination of anesthesiology residents who trained in the same city, in two separate university programs, and in two different languages, and who graduated between 1990 and 2010. …