What you have told us

Dear Colleagues,

As the voice of family medicine in Canada, the CFPC’s strength comes from the support, input, and feedback of its more than 42,000 members. We have conducted several surveys over the years to better understand your needs. In January 2022, with the help of a consultant, we circulated a membership survey that focused on where you are professionally and what engages and motivates you, and we aimed to uncover your unmet needs. Thank you to the more than 3000 respondents who participated.

We are delighted that members agree or strongly agree that the CFPC delivers on its core mandate of ensuring high standards are in place for the CCFP designation (71%); that CFPC examinations support high standards for the profession (71%); and that the CFPC is vital to setting standards in family medicine education (69%). You also told us where we fall short: keeping members up to date on changes in family medicine (57%); listening to the opinions and needs of members (39%); and having annual fees that are worth the expense (25%).

To date, the CFPC has undertaken numerous projects and campaigns to support you, including the Outcomes of Training project (https://www.cfpc.ca/en/futurefp), the promotion of team-based care through the Patient’s Medical Home (https://patientsmedicalhome.ca), our recent “Your care specialist” public campaign (https://yourcarespecialist.ca), continuing professional development offerings such as CFPCLearn (https://cfpclearn.ca) and FMF LOVED (https://fmf.cfpc.ca/fmf-on-demand), webinars on clinical issues (https://www.cfpc.ca/webinars), and working with decision makers on the federal government’s commitment to invest $3.2 billion in supporting health care workers.¹

You are telling us, however, that what we are doing is not addressing those things that directly affect you—your frustrations and, importantly, the gaps between what you expect from your career as a family doctor and what your professional life is like.

Most of you said you chose family medicine because you wanted to form meaningful connections with patients (94% agreed or strongly agreed), to feel a sense of contributing to society (92%), and to contribute to the wellbeing of Canadians (90%). Further, 84% of respondents described their practices as providing comprehensive care to patients across their lifespans, including preventive care, acute and episodic care, and ongoing care for chronic health conditions. Most of you consider yourselves to be delivering generalist primary care—a description that resonates with what most Canadians value receiving from their family doctors.

You also told us how frustrated you are by some of your experiences as FPs: patients’ high expectations in terms of responsiveness and speed of care (88% agreed or strongly agreed this was a frustration); financial pressures of practice and the burden of unpaid paperwork (88%); generalist expertise not being valued compared with focused expertise (84%); increasingly demanding and difficult patients (82%); and insufficient resources to prevent burnout (81%).

That gap between your hopes and expectations and your frustrations is where the CFPC can help by advocating on your behalf, providing you with tools and guidance, and addressing various dimensions of your professional lives.

Family medicine is at a critical juncture, and some members’ experiences as FPs reflect this. At the same time, we have the opportunity to further elevate the important messages that come through in members’ feedback about motivation and engagement. Family doctors make a difference in the lives of their patients and communities, and those who have family doctors tend to have better health outcomes.² It will be critical for the CFPC to provide clear and consistent messages: FPs bring added value to complex, generalist care and, when well supported and enabled to do their best work as team leaders, family doctors improve access to care and enhance the quality of care.

We will not always get things right, but hearing from you, understanding what elates you, and knowing what frustrates you will help us continually improve as your professional home.

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