MSc/PhD During Residency

[canada747 63]

I'm very interested in taking 2-4 years to do an MSc or PhD. How does this work? I know some schools have their own programs for this.

Could I do a grad degree outside of my home institution, or outside of Canada, even? Does the program have a say in what I do the degree in? And, do you maintain your residency funding (and get the yearly increases) during this time?

[bearded frog 943]

I think you might have trouble finding a program that would let you do an outside graduate degree during residency, usually they need to have the program built in to have the infrastructure to accommodate it. A program might let you take a LOA for a year to do a masters or something but unlikely to get paid as a resident during (you might get a graduate stipend instead). I would be shocked if a program let you take enough time off for residency to do a phd.

[PolkaDoots 9]

Look into the Clinician Investigator Program (CIP) wherever you are doing residency. It is a royal college accredited program for residents who want to do research and there's a few different ways it is done depending on your goals, prior research experience, etc. You are paid at your level of training throughout (ie if you are PGY3 you are paid a PGY3 salary). I think you can continue some clinical work to keep up skills but you are required to do at least 80% research time. It is a 24 month program so if you do 3 months clinical and 9 months research it is funded for 3 years but can be stretched out even further if you have breaks in time where you're waiting for grant funding, enrolling patients, etc. Some people do MSc if no prior research, if they have prior MSc or significant researche experience they might do PhD, or if they have PhD they might do a post doctoral fellowship. You do have to successfully complete the graduate degree to get credit for the CIP.