Getting adequate medical services is a challenge for local communities and regional health authorities (RHAs) alike. A community development approach recognizes that the physician and his or her family are also an integral part of the local community and that recruitment and retention is most successful if local physicians, RHAs and representatives from the community at large engage in the recruitment/retention process through a formalized recruitment and retention committee. Local representatives are uniquely invaluable when it comes to issues of spousal employment, schooling and activities for children, meeting unique needs of immigrant families and the ultimate integration of the family into the neighbourhood.  

The Alberta Rural Physician Action Plan (RPAP) works with and supports community involvement in rural physician recruitment and retention initiatives.