Residency programs with free parking and/or meal plans

[BCelectrophile]

Do they exist in Canada? Seems quite common in America.

[bearded frog]

AFAIK, there are none. Generally residents do get a hospital parking discount/staff lot access though, and some sites may have free parking, etc. Multiple reasons for this, but generally Canadian teaching hospitals are in urban centres/adjacent to university campuses/well connected to public transit with limited parking (the places I've worked at, nurses, etc. need to be on a waiting list for years before even having access to parking), whereas many US centres are private and in more rural areas with acres of parking. Parking, meal plans, etc. are part of the contracts each provincial resident union negotiates with the province. Many places will have free coffee/snacks on a per-site basis, or cafeteria discount, but generally the call stipend would be considered to be compensation in lieu of a meal plan.

[rmorelan]

yeah never seen those  here - also while I haven't done a complete analysis of this I think Canadian residents get paid more as well. Be wary of anyone giving you free "XYZ", ha. It is usually a sign you are getting ripped off in some other fashion, and they are trying to improve moral with cheaper options

[Bluberblubo]

Maybe a bit of rationalization to make myself not feel bad at having to pay for parking and food, but I don't think free parking/food would be the highest priority for picking a residency program over another. Now if they were equal though then for sure I won't say no to something free!

[shikimate]

OP is funny.

Hospital parking is a complete scam because in most places they're a geographic monopoly and will charge you a ridiculous monthly rate. They'll never have a reserved spot for you, so when you show up at 8am, all the spots near the hospital will be taken by nurses who start their shift at 7am. You'd be lucky if they have a parking garage because most parking is outdoors so good luck shoveling your car out of there in January.

Hospital caf is another geographic monopoly. If Gordie Ramsay ate there he'd say the food is a "f**king disgrace". Be ready to pay >30% than the same chain across the road. 

[Edict]

On 7/8/2022 at 7:24 PM, BCelectrophile said:

Do they exist in Canada? Seems quite common in America.

No, but salaries tend to rise faster with PGY year here than over there. Its basically just meeting inflation over there. CoL is higher in the US as well, so despite the 1.3 conversion rate for many things the prices are 1 to 1. 

 

[BCelectrophile]

19 hours ago, Edict said:

No, but salaries tend to rise faster with PGY year here than over there. Its basically just meeting inflation over there. CoL is higher in the US as well, so despite the 1.3 conversion rate for many things the prices are 1 to 1. 

 

How come you say COL is higher? I would think that COL is similar in BC/Ontario as it is in California or Boston/Seattle/NYC, but that the USA also has a lot more residency programs in cheaper non-urban areas

[Edict]

11 minutes ago, BCelectrophile said:

How come you say COL is higher? I would think that COL is similar in BC/Ontario as it is in California or Boston/Seattle/NYC, but that the USA also has a lot more residency programs in cheaper non-urban areas

COL is definitely higher in Boston/NYC than it is in Toronto. I can't comment on non-urban areas however, but rents in the big US cities like NYC are high, avg Manhattan apt rent just went over $5000 USD a month recently. Prices of food are the same but just in USD, personal experience.