March 2001 • Volume 7 • Number 3
New commission on resident, student issues gets the nod
The AAFP Board of Directors has given the go-ahead for creating a Commission on Resident and Student Issues. The commission will replace the recently disbanded Task Force on Student Interest and Committee on Resident and Student Affairs.
The task force, at its meeting Jan. 17-18, recommended creating the new commission. After analyzing AAFP's commission/committee structure, the TFSI found no group within AAFP that would "permit the necessary analysis of data, generation of ideas, dissemination of information and evaluation of projects" called for in TFSI's proposal. On Jan. 20, the Board agreed in concept with the need for the new commission.
Chief among the functions of the CRSI would be identifying and monitoring factors influencing specialty choice by medical students.
Other proposed functions include evaluating current resident/student initiatives and developing new strategies to meet emerging needs of these groups; collaborating with constituent chapters to improve support for family practice residents and students interested in family medicine; and utilizing existing resources within organized medicine to further mutual goals related to resident and student issues.
The Board's action was spurred by increasing concern about the recent downward trend in student interest in the specialty. The number of applicants filling family practice residency slots through the National Resident Matching Program reached a high in 1997: of 3,262 available positions, 2,905 applicants matched in the specialty. The numbers have steadily declined since then. Last year, 2,603 positions were filled out of the 3,206 slots available.
Jennifer Aloff, M.D., of Midland, Mich., resident Board member, and Andrew Mills of Tulsa, student Board member, will serve on the new commission ex officio. Although other details about the commission's membership and charge won't be hammered out until the Board meets March 1318 in Washington, "This is a very positive step in light of ongoing concerns about declining student interest in family practice," said Deborah McPherson, M.D., assistant director of the Division of Medical Education.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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