National
Academic Pediatric Workforce Database
In Canada, health care and education are primarily a Provincial
responsibility; however, some Federal funding encourages support
of the principles and standards of a national health care
system.
Over the last several decades, new technology, new pharmaceuticals,
advances in health care, changing expectations, altered patterns
of health care delivery, growing gaps in the availability
service providers, the demographics of an aging population
and an increasingly competitive funding environment have challenged
health practitioners, health care administrators, educators
and academic health centers.
Collaboration to facilitate benchmarking, innovation, efficiency,
effectiveness, patient safety, rationalization of health care
delivery and human resource planning has become increasingly
essential.
In 1993, the 16 Chairs of Pediatrics in Canada initiated
an annual survey of pediatric specialists and sub-specialists
who practiced within their Medical Schools and compiled the
first nation-wide population-based academic pediatric workforce
database.
Over the last decade, the Paediatric Chairs of Canada (PCC)
improved the accuracy of the survey data by developing standardized
physician career activity profiles (Clinician Specialist/Teacher,
Clinician Educator, Clinician Scientist/Investigator, Clinician
Administrator) and reporting criteria.
To obtain a clear picture of the geographic distribution,
subspecialty mix and actual roles of physicians, data are
reported as both a raw number of physicians in clinical educational,
research or administrative roles in each discipline and as
the number of subspecialty practitioners for the actual population
< 18 years of age at each academic center, within each
Province and nationally.
PCC also collect data on the number of pediatric clerkship,
resident and subspecialty traineeships by discipline at each
of the 16 academic health centers and are beginning to relate
that to our projected workforce needs and strategies to better
match supply and demand.
Lastly, PCC is collecting common utilization indicators that
provide a benchmark for physician productivity and an accountability
measure to justify a) the expansion of pediatric resident
and subspecialty pediatric training programs and b) the physician
resources that the academic pediatric centers require.
Of approximately 2500 pediatricians in Canada, a total of
1,109 (510 female) spend a majority of their time supporting
the clinical, educational, research and administrative activity
within the 16 Canadian Medical Schools. With rare exception,
this includes all of the pediatric sub specialists.
The majority (69%, n = 768) of pediatricians appointed to
academic departments of Pediatrics function as Clinician Specialist/Teachers.
Of the remainder, Clinician Scientists/Investigators made
up a further 17% (n = 185) of academic department members.
Clinician Educators in Canada have frequently obtained Masters
or doctorate level training in education and have major educational
development and research roles in addition to traditional
bedside teaching activities. This emerging group of academic
pediatricians account for 8% (n = 85) of the total pediatric
workforce.
Clinical Administrators were less than 5% (n = 52) of the
workforce. Non-pediatric sub specialists who spent the majority
of their time consulting in pediatrics represented only 2%
(n = 20) of the total.
The majority of Canada's academic pediatricians are actively
engaged in the delivery of specialized child health care and
the clinical supervision of undergraduate and post graduate
medical trainees. Overall, the data indicate a relative paucity
of academic researchers and educators.
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