Winter 2023 (Volume 33, Number 4)

Report from the Human Resources Committee

By Dana Jerome, MD, MEd, FRCPC

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The CRA Human Resource (HR) Committee has had two main foci over the course of this year. The first has been to continue the work on burnout to provide resources for our membership to identify and address this issue. The second is work on addressing access to rheumatology care, particularly in remote and underserved areas and populations.

The systematic review of published systematic reviews entitled, “An Overview of Reviews to Inform Organization-level Interventions to Address Burnout in Rheumatologists” led by HR Committee member Dr. Barber, her colleague Dr. Kheirkhah, as well as registered psychologist Nicole Hartfeld, was completed and published in the Journal of Rheumatology. A link to this publication can be found on the CRA website: rheum.ca/resources/cra-workforce-and-wellness-surveys/.

The CRA membership survey demonstrated burnout as one of the top two issues of concern amongst Canadian rheumatologists. Ongoing work to promote recognition of burnout and practical information to address the issue will be a focus for the upcoming year.

Outreach care, either through travelling clinics or virtual care, is one of the strategies for addressing access to rheumatology care. To eventually promote outreach care, a survey of current rheumatology training programs was performed. This has demonstrated that only 50% of our national training programs in rheumatology have outreach care as a part of the training program, and in most cases it is optional. However, 100% of program directors felt trainees would be interested in participating in outreach care as part of their training. Over the course of the upcoming year, the committee will focus on gaining a better understanding of the landscape of outreach care across the country to identify steps that might be taken to promote and/or facilitate rheumatology care for patients and communities currently less well served.

Dana Jerome, MD, MEd, FRCPC
Chair, CRA Human Resources Committee
Program Director, Rheumatology Training Program
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario