Patient needs within the community context define the knowledge, skills and attitudes that their physician needs to acquire to serve their needs. Family physicians practising in a rural community are in an excellent position to assess the health care needs of their community as a whole. They work as members of an interdisciplinary team of health care providers to help ensure that that those needs are met by the local health care team as much as possible. They must be able to recognize the limitations of local resources, the hospital setting and their own medical team in order to be able to ensure that care is provided to the community in a safe, effective and efficient way. While helping to oversee the provision of medical services to the community, rural doctors also have a responsibility to ensure that the quality of health care services provided is adequate.
Rural doctors help to support the services provided within the community in a number of other ways.
They are often involved in hospital committees, and act as a resource to local service groups, patient support groups and other community based groups. This provides wonderful opportunities to assess community needs and to experience the rewards of making a significant contribution to the life of a medical community and the community as a whole. The potential demand for involvement in a number of organizations and committees can be huge and rural family doctors may benefit by working as a team to try to address the needs of the community. To thrive in a rural community the family doctor should be able to recognize their own personal needs and have the courage to address those, particularly as they pertain to identifying and alleviating the potential for excessive stress and burnout. The ability to recognize and subsequently address this often demands a creative problem solving ability on the part of the local physicians.