TY - JOUR T1 - Needs of the many JF - Canadian Family Physician JO - Can Fam Physician SP - 449 LP - 455 VL - 64 IS - 6 AU - Roger Strasser AU - Hoi Cheu Y1 - 2018/06/01 UR - http://www.cfp.ca/content/64/6/449.abstract N2 - Objective To explore the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) student and graduate experience of generalism in rural practice, in the context of a growing discourse on generalism.Design Qualitative analysis.Setting Northern Ontario School of Medicine in multiple sites across northern Ontario, which is the NOSM campus.Participants A total of 37 graduating medical students and 9 practising NOSM graduates.Methods The Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research and NOSM tracking studies use mixed methods drawing on data from various sources. This paper reports on an arts-based study using semistructured interviews.Main findings Key themes from student observations include an affinity for the northern Ontario environment and a recognition that rural medicine involves a broad scope of practice. Students from NOSM consider generalist care to be a comprehensive service with a strong focus on responding to the health needs of the communities they serve. Beyond primary care, a rural medicine “true generalist” is viewed as a complete package—a physician who provides care ranging from promoting prevention to performing specialist tasks.Conclusion Rural practitioners, particularly in family medicine, are extended generalists with a broad scope of practice guided by the health needs of the communities they serve. The NOSM students’ and graduates’ experience of rural generalism is positive and highly influential in determining their career directions, including specialty, scope, and location of practice. The generalist approach of NOSM might be effective beyond rural applications and an advantageous approach for foundational medical education. Students and graduates report that NOSM’s distributed community-engaged learning prepares them well for rural generalist practice. ER -