NutritionRunner

What happened at Queen's? 23 FM spots in Kingston left? Yikes.

Super easy to check the jobs posted at the Canadian Association of Community Health Centres and see the salaries for various positions and whether they are full or part time. In Ontario, working at a CHC you will most likely contribute to a pension through HOOPP and have other benefits. Current locum opening at Guelph CHC for 18.5 hrs/week for $134.40-156.72 per hour. Kingston CHC physician posting for $285,234 annually (1.0 FTE), includes comprehensive benefits package and HOOPP 35 hrs/week (to me that’s less than 1.0 FTE which is usually 37.5 hrs/week, but whatever).

Both are great schools. I know several of the OT profs at Queens, and they are great. Do you have a particular interest that one program might have greater strengths in? Do you prefer big cities or less big cities? How do you want to engage in research? How does the cost of living compare? Where do you want to end up working?

Late to reply, but regardless of whether you graduate or not, you’ll have to disclose ALL transcripts to medical schools, even those that only look at last two or best two years. So graduation doesn’t affect that. There’s no such thing as starting fresh, you have to provide all transcripts. If you don’t, and schools find out, your application will be thrown out, even for schools that don’t look at earlier degrees or courses. It’s about academic honesty.

How on Earth can anyone have 50 pubs over four years of med school, unless the majority are in predatory journals? Or they received authorship for doing very little and are mid-author on a bunch of pubs they didn’t actually contribute to? That number is just insane for anyone who isn’t a PI supervising groups of researchers and should be looked at very sceptically.

Interesting. I’m a patient at an academic FHT (in addition to being a health care professional at a separate centre) and in the lobby they have photos of all the attendings and residents, and where they studied for their medical degree, and for the attendings, where they did their residency. That’s why I know two of the three residents I’ve seen did their degrees in Ireland, whereas the third did theirs at Queen’s. Some places don’t hide their residents’ or attendings’ backgrounds, but most won’t understand the differences, unless they also work in healthcare, as I do.

Your bullet points could apply to practically any professional job, just the staff in question would not be physicians, but rather other professionals, and instead of electives you would have internships, informational interviews, participating in the right groups and professional activities, portfolios, and the like. Lots of professional positions aren’t even advertised; people get them through connections and networking. Medical education and residency in Canada are also designed to produce the types of physicians that are needed in Canada (although we clearly don’t produce enough primary care practitioners), and not designed to ensure every medical student gets their preferred specialty. Yes, it sucks for people who don’t get their preferred specialty and for those who leave medicine altogether. It really does. I can appreciate you must be very disappointed having done all the “right” things and not matching to your preferred residency. Sadly, you can do everything “right” and have a less than desired outcome. I hope you can find some contentment in family medicine

Calgary will take life experiences into consideration. Most programs outside of Canada are 4 to 6 years of medicine. Smash CARS and Casper and you might have a chance at Calgary or McMaster. Consider your lost earnings while in medical school. If you truly can’t see yourself doing anything else, give it a shot. Not familiar with UofO so can’t comment there. Good luck.

I know several people who had success after doing a second undergrad. Most picked a degree/profession they would be happy practising if they did not get into med. Dietetics/Nutrition and Kinesiology seem to provide the best options if med doesn’t work out. But others have had success with arts degrees, or other science degrees. With previous degrees, a second undergrad will likely only take 2-3 years. Accelerated nursing is 2, but can be harder to get top grades, so unless you wan to go the NP route may not be the best choice.

Queen’s has a one year masters in aging and health if that interests you (if not interested in aging it won’t be easy). Online. Guelph has a one year masters in human health and nutrition, in person. Either could be applicable to dentistry, depending on your focus/interests

As someone who has worked in Kingston, there is a huge underserved population taken care of by Street Health (part of Kingston Community Health Centres) plus all the individuals who are incarcerated or out on parole, again mostly seen by Kingston Community Health Centres and Street Health Centre, if not taken care of elsewhere. I also had more trans clients/patients in Kingston than anywhere else I’ve worked. Maybe location, maybe because I used their preferred names and pronouns and treated them like any other client/patient. I’ve never worked in Toronto or Vancouver, but I saw far more traditionally underserved and actively discriminated against patients in Kingston than in other similarly sized or slightly larger cities in Ontario. I saw lots of traditionally underserved populations and many newcomers to Canada when working at KCHC. Even supervised some medical students who helped with various programs. Kingston is no Toronto though, so if you want big cities, not for you. I grew up in Ottawa and even it’s too big for me now, so ymmv.

Yes, every school in Canada has students who are racist and classist. While I didn’t do my undergrad at Queen’s I am doing my PhD at Queen’s and I have TAed undergrad courses and have seen more racism and classism than I did at Guelph, but that’s just my experience. My doctoral lab at Queen’s has numerous students from Ethiopia and I’ve seen first hand the racism they’ve experienced in Kingston and at Queen’s. These are things I’ve witnessed myself, that I did not witness at U of T (my masters) or Guelph (undergrad) but that’s just MY personal experience. Also, as a Métis woman, I experienced far less racism at UofT and Guelph than at Queen’s. With Dean Philpott now the dean of Health Sciences things are thankfully changing, but you just have to look at the reaction to the Quarms changes to see that racism is alive and well at Queen’s. It’s present at other universities of course, but I’ve only seen it blatantly at Queen’s out of the 3 universities I’ve attended. Your experience may differ, of course. I’m just reporting on my experience and what I’ve seen and experienced as a student. PhD students are still students even if we aren’t undergrads. As I said I’m in the faculty of Health Sciences but I’ve TAed for courses in the faculty of Arts and Science (in kinesiology more than any other department). I’ve also been involved with QUIC, where international students have reported dealing with racism.

I went to Guelph. Studied Applied Human Nutrition. 4.0 GPA and won the award for highest average graduating from a program in my department (FRAN). Loved Guelph, lots of support for students from the university and from profs. Lived in Rez first year in a “quiet area” with other students who were focused on their studies. Definitely not too noisy to study due to being in this type of Rez (they have a different name now). Other rezzes were definitely more noisy and more about partying. Course evaluation was very fair, profs were very kind and supportive. Lots of peer support and other supports for transitioning to university. As a first gen uni attendee, appreciated a lot of the info/programs. Lots of opportunities to volunteer. While I decided not to pursue medical school (after several wait lists one year and two concussions) I know many who have gone to medical school after Guelph I am currently a PhD student at Queen’s and while I love it for doctoral studies, as an undergrad it would have been too much of a snobbish and party university for me (I came from a working class family and paid for university through my scholarships). Still lots of racism and classism at Queen’s sadly, although in the Faculty of Health Sciences the new dean is working to address those issues. Life sciences is in Arts and science at Queen’s, not Health Sciences, just something to be aware of. Happy to answer questions about Guelph or Queen’s (I’ve TAed for undergrad courses at Queen’s).

As a PhD student in the Faculty of Health Sciences, I can say that Dean Philpott is committed to equity and diversity. They are trying to increase the number of Indigenous applications to all the health professions with a devoted Indigenous pathway https://healthsci.queensu.ca/academics/edi/prospective-indigenous-students but I haven’t heard of any quotas. I am a member of the Dean’s EDI table, for what’s that worth.

Take your professional courses. Dietetics is an amazing back-up plan if it takes you a while to get into medical school, or if you never get in. Anecdotally, I know at least 2 graduates of Guelph's Applied Human Nutrition program, and at least 2 graduates of Western/Brescia's Dietetics program who were later accepted to medical school. So it is definitely possible. At least 2 of those 4 individuals obtained their RD designation before being accepted to medical school. As I said, it's a great health care back-up plan. No doubt there are many more from other programs who have also made the transition.