Questions about working in Alberta after US residency

[Canagliflozin]

Hey everyone, I am a PGY-3 FM resident in the USA. Originally from rural Alberta and hope to return there after residency. I don't know any physicians in Canada and had some questions I was hoping someone can help me with. 

- How does one go about applying for jobs in Alberta? Here they have websites like Merritt Hawkins and practice link. I looked online for outpatient/inpatient jobs in my area of Alberta and couldn't find much. 

- My program is inpatient heavy and I was looking at primarily doing hospitalist work. Is it common for FM physicians to work as hospitalists in Canada? What is the average census? Do they have open ICUs? Does FM do their own inpatient procedures?

- Apparently it will take me about 3 months to get an independent practice license in Alberta. Would I be able to work anywhere while the paperwork is being sorted? Is there some kind of temporary license?

Thanks!

[frenchpress]

Still in residency myself, so can’t answer all your questions. You can try https://www.doctorjobsalberta.com. You can also check the cherry health app for locums in Alberta.

Edit: forgot to mention the FMRA job board https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/fmra/job-advertisements

Lots of jobs are word of mouth, and some hospitalists I’ve worked with have advised me that they often prefer residents who’ve trained at their center, just because they know them. Locums are a very good way to make connections here, and since Kenney started his war on the family docs they are in increasingly short supply. You may find that a good way to start. 

Not clear from your post if you’re planning to return to rural. I haven’t done a tonne of hospitalist yet elsewhere in Alberta, so cannot comment on average census beyond my own center (which is usually 10-20 per doc). I’ve heard theres some opportunities for critical care, but I think more so in centres outside Calgary and Edmonton, and the one I know who does it also does Emerg. None of the rural communities I’ve worked in have full-time hospitalists, but docs in many rural centres will do a considerable amount of inpatient care and/or emerg. Some will also do inpatient procedures, again, depends on the center. Are you also interested in Emerg? 

[Canagliflozin]

On 10/23/2021 at 10:09 PM, frenchpress said:

Still in residency myself, so can’t answer all your questions. You can try https://www.doctorjobsalberta.com. You can also check the cherry health app for locums in Alberta.

Edit: forgot to mention the FMRA job board https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/fmra/job-advertisements

Lots of jobs are word of mouth, and some hospitalists I’ve worked with have advised me that they often prefer residents who’ve trained at their center, just because they know them. Locums are a very good way to make connections here, and since Kenney started his war on the family docs they are in increasingly short supply. You may find that a good way to start. 

Not clear from your post if you’re planning to return to rural. I haven’t done a tonne of hospitalist yet elsewhere in Alberta, so cannot comment on average census beyond my own center (which is usually 10-20 per doc). I’ve heard theres some opportunities for critical care, but I think more so in centres outside Calgary and Edmonton, and the one I know who does it also does Emerg. None of the rural communities I’ve worked in have full-time hospitalists, but docs in many rural centres will do a considerable amount of inpatient care and/or emerg. Some will also do inpatient procedures, again, depends on the center. Are you also interested in Emerg? 

Thanks! Did not know about FMRA job board. 

Was thinking of doing locums first. I found some jobs for outpatient but none inpatient. 

I would like to return to rural but there is only one hospital within a 200 mile radius of where I live so it will probably be hard to find an inpatient job. I wouldn't mind working in Edmonton. I am interested in emerg but would not feel comfortable going solo without getting additional airway/trauma experience. Usually that requires a fellowship which I am too tired to do. 

So with rural hospitals who takes care of inpatients if there is no hospitalist? Do outpatient FM docs just come in to round on their own patients? 

[frenchpress]

8 hours ago, Canagliflozin said:

Thanks! Did not know about FMRA job board. 

Was thinking of doing locums first. I found some jobs for outpatient but none inpatient. 

I would like to return to rural but there is only one hospital within a 200 mile radius of where I live so it will probably be hard to find an inpatient job. I wouldn't mind working in Edmonton. I am interested in emerg but would not feel comfortable going solo without getting additional airway/trauma experience. Usually that requires a fellowship which I am too tired to do. 

So with rural hospitals who takes care of inpatients if there is no hospitalist? Do outpatient FM docs just come in to round on their own patients? 

BC has training pathways for rural docs to get more Emerg training (e.g. 3-6 months), there may be something similar in Alberta, I’m just not familiar. More and more fm docs here who want to do Emerg are doing a +1 year to get the ccfp-em designation, which is required for FM docs to work Emerg in most large hospitals and increasingly in smaller centres.

For rural inpatient, it depends on the hospital. In my current community it rotates through a group of local family doctors who each do a week of hospitalist at a time - each doc is on once every 4-8 weeks or so. In other rural places I’ve worked outside Alberta, docs either rounded on their own patients, or had alternate shared models (e.g. one person per week covers the whole clinic’s patients), and I hear that’s how many places here do it. Since covid started there seems to have been a broader move away from individual docs covering their own patients and more effort to have people do a week at a time, just to minimizing cross contamination between office and hospital.