What Do You Guys Think About This Article About Imgs?

[ks--]

http://www.rxpgonline.com/article1471.html

 

Thoughts, comments, criticisms? 

[rmorelan]

http://www.rxpgonline.com/article1471.html

 

Thoughts, comments, criticisms? 

 

well....that was long so it is hard to directly criticize all of the points etc but there the overall picture does rather bluntly explain many key points of the process and why it is so hard to get back.

 

A few things to add - I don't think we have doctors shortage now and even if we did we won't by the time anyone going into medical school gets through residency. We have so dramatically upped the number of canadian med students that it is just pointless to think there is a effective shortage except in the very locations the article says no one wants to work.

 

Next family doctors earn a lot more than 90K. I don't know where that number came from but it isn't the one the major organizations in canada would say. Plus you know some of those spots the author is making out to be so terrible some people WANT to work. and 90K is not the same as 66K US. That would play into standard of living and the exchange rate is not that low at all. Not sure how long the article is

 

Next about the exams - it is implied doing both sets of exams for US vs Canada is somehow hard. In reality in Canada often you do both sets anyway just for practise and the ability to go to the US. I for instance will have both US and Canada licensing in radiology when I am done, as will everyone else in my program. That isn't the problem.

 

One thing about how the system is set up - technically according to the constitution Canada isn't allowed to treat people differently on the basis of country of origin - even IF that country of origin is actually Canada itself. That means that if you are Canadian but trained in Ireland or Irish and trained in Ireland you have to be treated the same in the CARMS process. There is not simple way around that - so you can write all the letters you want but that isn't going to change.  That is the big problem for foreign trained grads.

 

CARMS does suck for IMGs - there is no way it could be considered otherwise. It is the positions are lean and the numbers applying huge. Brutal in ways I don't thing you can really understand unless you have worked in the office and seen the flow of people coming in the door. Desperate, smart, hard working people and there are just so many of them

 

Oh and I HATE that we let foreign grads in without a realistic hope of getting into a pathway that leads to a job in medicine. That is false hope and yes even lies at times. Just not good practise.

[Arztin]

TLDR man sorry.

On another note, I just found out that in my anatomy sessions, many of my TA are foreign IMG trying to get a spot here.

sorry for being totally unrelated.

[rmorelan]

TLDR man sorry.

On another note, I just found out that in my anatomy sessions, many of my TA are foreign IMG trying to get a spot here.

sorry for being totally unrelated.

 

just to add to that - they are actually everywhere you look once you are aware. I have have worked with ultrasound techs that are doctors with 20+ years experience where I as a R2 I am supposed to be "in charge" - try that for weird. One of my grad TAs ran a department of surgery overseas. The list goes on.

[leviathan]

I had to get an echo a few years ago, and the tech doing my exam told me she used to be a cardiologist in her home country. Also you have to think about all the clinical associates in hospitals as well. 

[karate-kid]

The term "IMG" is only useful as a label to distinguish those that graduated a medical school outside of the country in question.  The worldly statement "It is a fact that all of the IMG's that come to Canada, 90-95% will not obtain a residency…” is completely uninformative.  It’s like saying cancer is bad.  Well yeah… but there are also a lot of other factors to take into consideration (type, tissue involvement, staging, treatment options/availability, etc.)

 

The IMG data needs to become quite a bit more granular to allow prospective medical students, IMGs, post-graduate program coordinators, and bureaucrats to make informed decisions.  For example, it is not well known how many Canadians studying abroad (Canadian IMGs) get residency spots in Canada, or how many Canadian IMGs that studied in Ireland vs. Caribbean vs. Pakistan receive a Canadian residency spot.  And from those that don’t, how many get a residency/internship position in the country they completed their MD/MBBS?  (How many actually go “jobless”?)  The flip side is, how many non-Canadian IMGs (i.e. South African or Chinese citizens and medically trained) are applying for Canadian medical residency spots, and are (not) successful.

 

Yes there are a lot of IMGs in Canada and the USA working as TAs, technicians, and taxi drivers.  But of what nationality/citizenship are they, and where did they do their training? (What is the quality of training?)  Just a hunch, but I bet it’s not an even distribution.