Advancing Rural Generalist Training: The Northern Regional Integrated Clerkship, a Blended Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship Innovation in Northern British Columbia

Sean B Maurice,1,2 Maggie Watt,3 Andrea Gingerich,1 Paul J Winwood1,3 1Northern Medical Program, Division of Medical Sciences, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada; 2Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 3Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CanadaCorrespondence: Paul J Winwood, Northern Medical Program, Division of Medical Sciences, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, V2N4Z9, Canada, Email [email protected]: The Northern Medical Program (NMP) is the most rural site of the University of British Columbia’s distributed medical school. Situated in northern British Columbia, Canada, the NMP strives for health equity by training physicians to meet the needs of northern, rural and Indigenous patients with innovative approaches to curriculum delivery which maintain comparability to the rest of the program and alignment with the assessment structure. Medical schools have a social accountability mandate to train physicians to serve the needs of rural and Indigenous peoples, to address the challenges of rural recruitment and retention, and to eliminate health inequities. Here we describe the creation of a new blended clerkship which places students in a small rural community for a 6-month longitudinal integrated clerkship and in a small urban community for a 6-month rotational clerkship. This new clerkship provides a unique opportunity for learners to learn and experience rural generalist medicine while meeting the accreditation standard of comparability. Early implementation has shown promise in enhancing rural medical education while maintaining curricular comparability, with positive reception from students and faculty.Keywords: rural population, Indigenous peoples, health equity, social responsibility, health workforce, medical education, clinical clerkship