Lights, camera ... inaction? Trends in rural health care in Canada

In summary, rural practice in Canada has had its image burnished in recent years and its model of practice (comprehensive, multi-tasking autonomous practice in multiple environments--"polyvalence" in good Québecois) increasingly recognized as an efficient model, which could apply to many settings. Where it thrives it has succeeded in distributing these tasks among enough individuals to allow itself room to breathe, and it has developed its skills and scope of practice in ways that support the self-reinforcing duality of competence and confidence. In short, it has made rural practice into "something someone would want to do." Whether this success will be repeated in enough places for it to be said that rural medicine is no longer in jeopardy remains to be seen.