Extra UBC residency spots added this year?

[Guest UofCMeds2005]

Hey,

 

I was wondering if any of you UBC guys know the inside scoop on the 40 extra spots UBC has added in CARMS this year ????

 

 

 

 

 

Edited the subject title to get rid of the all-capital letters. -Ian

[Guest Ian Wong]

Heya,

 

I was hoping that someone else would tackle this, but I guess not. There was definitely some additional funding for residency spots at UBC this year; for example, Radiology got an extra spot, so there are 5 Radiology spots this year instead of 4.

 

I would assume that these spots would be added in areas of greatest need in BC. This would include Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Psychiatry, Anesthesiology, and Radiology. I suspect that a large number, like maybe 50%, of these 40 seats (assuming that's how many they've added; I hadn't heard the number), would be designated to Family Medicine; I don't think they would assign all 40 seats to specialty spots.

 

The bottom line though is that CaRMS this year is EXTREMELY tight as far as the number of available seats compared with the number of graduating Canadian med students. Considering the increased number of Ontario med students, and elsewhere in Canada, it really behooves the government to get in gear, and increase residency spots further, or else the crunch is only going to worsen.

 

Ian

[Guest byjude]

How does the number of residency spots relate to the number of Canadian med students choosing to pursue residency elsewhere (ie, the US)?

 

I've heard that in the past the number of residencies or the ideal number is 1:1. Is it expected that the number of Canadian med students choosing to go to the US is roughly balanced by the number of foreign-educated med students entering the CaRMS match?

[Guest Ian Wong]

The ideal ratio of Canadian applicants to residency seats is not 1:1, but rather something approaching 1:1.2.

 

There are two rounds to CaRMS, with the first round being open to graduates of Canadian and US med schools (as far as I know). It is hoped that in this first round, the applicants:seats ratio is 1:1.2. This allows for some flexibility for Canadian medical students in hopefully having some choices as far as their specialty choice and city location.

 

Using this 1:1.2 ratio, there will therefore be a number of vacant positions left for the second round of CaRMS, which occurs a few weeks after the first round has concluded. The second round is open to any applicants from the first round who failed to match into any residency positions (in other words, any unmatched applicants), and international medical graduates. By the end of the second round, most Canadian residency spots have filled.

 

The problem with this year is that with an applicant:seats ratio of 1:1, many students are going to be stuck in specialties that were not their first choice. Many others who choose not to apply to backup specialties are going to end up unmatched. Since there aren't many extra seats available, there will likely not be many seats left for the second round, which means that both unmatched applicants and international medical graduates really will have few residency positions left to try for.

 

As far as Canadian med students applying and matching into the US, this obviously relieves the pressure somewhat by lessening the competition for those scarce Canadian residency spots. Still, that's a pretty stupid way to alleviate that pressure (sending a Canadian med graduate to the States); a much better way would be for the government to not be so stupid, and to open up more residency spots by funding them properly.

 

Ian