Quebec issues

[Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

I'm assuming that many of you have heard about the indefinite cancellation of medical electives by most of the Quebec schools? Any word as to when clinical electives might re-start?

 

How is this affecting current Quebec students? I'm assuming that this is a bit of a disaster given the current time of year, i.e., CaRMS season.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Blake]

I'm only applying next year to CARMS, and we haven't started our clinical rotations yet, so most students at Sherb aren't really affected by this. I heard Montreal and Laval medschools have kicked their students out of the hospitals, until the conflict ends between the specialists and the government. I've set up an elective in MTL, and it could be in jeopardy if this thing goes on till march, but I think in 1-2 weeks the current situation will be settled.

 

CY, how's the situation over there ?

[Kirsteen]

I'm only applying next year to CARMS, and we haven't started our clinical rotations yet, so most students at Sherb aren't really affected by this. I heard Montreal and Laval medschools have kicked their students out of the hospitals, until the conflict ends between the specialists and the government. I've set up an elective in MTL, and it could be in jeopardy if this thing goes on till march, but I think in 1-2 weeks the current situation will be settled.

 

CY, how's the situation over there ?

Hi again,

 

From what I hear, McGill has also refused to evaluate medical students as well.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Blake]

A friend in 4th year just confirmed that attendings here have voted today to stop teaching anymore, starting monday. Not sure how we'll be affected though (3rd year and under).

[Maxime]

Yeah, at Sherbrooke we've been pretty much lucky up to date. At Laval, every single clerkship rotation has been cancelled until further notice I've lost an elective there in orthopaedics, and an elective in the Montreal region in radiology. Lets hope things solve themselves soon...

 

Maxime

[Blake]

I've got an elective in neurosurgery at MTL and they keep saying they'll respect the ''deal'', regardless of the conflict outcomes. Weird, isn't it ? So max, ortho huh ? I'm doing ortho in april, as part of a 4 months-straight surgery marathon. Yea, questioning my sanity might be appropriate, haha.

[Maxime]

Hey Blake,

 

I'm at Charles-Lemoyne for EM in february, then ENT in Sherby (with Dorion) in March, and then up to saguenay for a few months, to finally come back down and do surgery at the CHUS (can't wait!). I've still got ortho as a selective, so I wasn't too deceived (but would've liked more surgery, oh well...). Are you in neurosurg with Dr Fortin?

[Blake]

Hey Blake,

 

I'm at Charles-Lemoyne for EM in february, then ENT in Sherby (with Dorion) in March, and then up to saguenay for a few months, to finally come back down and do surgery at the CHUS (can't wait!). I've still got ortho as a selective, so I wasn't too deceived (but would've liked more surgery, oh well...). Are you in neurosurg with Dr Fortin?

Yea, I'm in neurosurg with Fortin and Kenny in february. March is neurosurg in MTL (I was supposed to be in Ottawa originally, but they didn't have any spot available for march). April = ortho. May = general surg. Maybe I shouldn't have taken neurology as a selective, but one never knows. Let's just say I shouldn't have any problems in the neuro part of LMCC

 

So, they literally cancelled your electives for good ? Or is there still some hope ?

 

Good night !

[Maxime]

Ortho has been cancelled (february), probably for good unless a miracle happens (ie: Santa's coming, he could give Couillard 2 ears in order to hear what the doctors are revendicating... ) As for radiology, I've completely given up hope. Kinda makes me regret of not applying out of province/country as others have done. At this point, I'm just hoping I won't have problems with my other electives and clerkships...

[CutieYellow]

Hmmm I haven't really been around - sorry about that. Just finished a 4 weeks elective in Toronto, so been keeping up with the situation from afar. Monday i'm starting an elective at McGill in Family Med, and it's still on so i'm feeling quite lucky. My next following months are all ok actually - have stat class, then emerg, then FM again, then April off. Only in May do i have hematology. So unless this stays till May, i'm not at all affected by this. YAY for timing. Sorry to hear about all of you guys.

 

Other than that, in terms of clerks being sent home, it's mostly UdM who's being the most hardcore - they've been sending people home since like 3 weeks now. Then it's followed closely by Laval who thereby suspended all clerkship activity (except for stat class, emerg and FM) starting Monday. McGill is creeping behind with approx 60% of clerks sent home. And finally Sherbrooke, who finally succumbed to peer pressure and started sending people home starting Monday.

 

I don't know how long this is going to last, but if it does more than 2 weeks, some of my fellow colleagues are at risk of having their rotation not valid (not 75% completed), thus dunno what's gonna happen in terms of residency apps. Heard McGill is thinking of suspending clerkship altogether and just not have any R1 next yr.........

 

IF they suspend my graduation... and i went thru CaRMS for NOTHING, i shall be very very upset.

 

CY

[Blake]

Heard McGill is thinking of suspending clerkship altogether and just not have any R1 next yr.........

No way !

 

BTW, how many electives do you guys have at Laval ? 5-6-7 ?

[CutieYellow]

Ya, it's hardcore. Heard Laval is thinking of delaying our graduation as well, so we'd be R1 like...later, until we finish our 200 or so credits.

We have five electives. Two before CaRMS, three after.

[noncestvrai]

I had call last friday in internal, I think I'll have to appreciate that last admission for some time...

 

So far at McGill, Psych, ObGyn, Surg, internal at most places are out, peds and family are spared.

 

I hope sincerely that this will be resolved soon, I'm doing my most important rotation, internal, I had a kick ass team of staff and residents...

 

Yeah, I'm pretty pissed, even if I don't have to wake up a 6AM tomorrow morning.

 

IMHO, they will find an agreement or pass an essential services law to force specialists to teach us.

 

I have 5 (4 weeks) electives pre-carms, 6 total.

 

I would like not to miss on any as I might apply to 2 competitive specialties...

 

noncestvrai

[CutieYellow]

So my family med rotation got cancelled by my school. Apparently they wanted to be fair so cancelled all electives, even those of us that actually had one. I am UBER PEEVED. Not to mention McGill decided to take my spot and give it to a Mcgillian that didn't have a rotation. So wonder what's gonna happen should the situation resolve ? Ahhh politics in Quebec, how I love thou.

[Kiel]

I had call last friday in internal, I think I'll have to appreciate that last admission for some time...

 

So far at McGill, Psych, ObGyn, Surg, internal at most places are out, peds and family are spared.

 

I hope sincerely that this will be resolved soon, I'm doing my most important rotation, internal, I had a kick ass team of staff and residents...

 

Yeah, I'm pretty pissed, even if I don't have to wake up a 6AM tomorrow morning.

 

IMHO, they will find an agreement or pass an essential services law to force specialists to teach us.

 

I have 5 (4 weeks) electives pre-carms, 6 total.

 

I would like not to miss on any as I might apply to 2 competitive specialties...

 

noncestvrai

What residency programs are you planning on applying to?

[noncestvrai]

Well, I'm considering radiology, anesthesia, emerg through fam med...maybe cardio, but really maybe. I like interventions, now I'll have to find out in what setting I'd like to perform them...ICU, OR, cath lab and the likes...

 

I ruled out most surgical specialties, but I enjoy ENT and plastics, since I'm a bit late in the game, I moving on...

 

I'll start my electives with radio, then prob anesthesia, and ICU if I feel like it's my "call".

 

As I like patient interaction, which is also people interaction, I don't know at this time if radiology will give me enough of that, as a consultant sure, but I do enjoy "doctoring" for patient and families. I'd like to be also in academics if possible, teaching, doing a little research...

 

Still lots of time on my hand to ponder, especially now.

 

noncestvrai

[Kels]

Hey guys,

What a crazy thing to be having to go through during this time of year (well, any time of year, actually!). I hope it is back to business soon for you guys.

 

I have a question regarding how your clerkships in Quebec work. At UBC we have our 3rd year pretty set out for us, with 2 months each of internal, surgery, and peds, and the other half of the year filled with psysch and obs/gyne (6 weeks each) and emerg, ortho, derm, optho, and a 2 week choose-your-own adventure elective filling out the rest of the year; 4 year we get to travel and organize the year our self, within reason. It seems like your third years are more flexible, with more movement between specialties and the schools in the province - is that correct? Just curious...

 

Kels

UBC Med 2008

[noncestvrai]

I can only speak for McGill, my own sequence, so here it goes, 8 weeks for peds, psych, internal, obs/gyne each, then 4 weeks gen surg, 4 weeks elective, 4 weeks summer/elective, all that for 3rd year, with different combos of course.

 

4th year, a surgical subspecialty, emergency med and geriatrics for 4 weeks each, then electives mixed with the previous, late portion of fourth year is a mix of medicine and society, seminars et al.

 

That's about it, hopefully they won't cut electives b/c of this $hit.

 

I know I'm out for this coming week...=(

 

noncestvrai

[CutieYellow]

Here's how Laval University works:

 

In third yr: 2 x 4 wks electives, 4 wks of geriatrics, 8 wks each of psych, surgery, internal, ped, ob-gyn, 4 wks vacations dispersed in that.

 

In fourth yr: 3 x 4 wks electives, 4 wks emerg, 4 wks family med rural, 4 wks preventative med/stats class, 4 wks off to study, 2 wks vacations dispersed in there

 

Thing is, i think one of my elective's gonna be cancelled. And my school said that as long as we did emerg, fam med and that class, they would pass us. But depending on people's schedules, and because ER has been cancelled in half of the hospitals, it might take over the 4 wks to study/vacation time, or even go into June, which we had off. They told us not to book any plane tix

 

We'll see how things go - but things look rather glum at the moment.

 

CY

[TimmyMax]

Hey,

 

4 weeks of geriatrics?!? At UWO we have to do 2 weeks of geriatrics and by the end of it, pretty much everyone wants to off themselves. Except for those who want to go into geriatrics, of course.

[CutieYellow]

Ya, four weeks of geri - had the same 3 out of 4 patients the whole time. So much for them calling the unit short stay!

 

I did like geri though, it was interesting to chat with the patient, and we had lots of time for teaching! It was one of my first rotations, so the pace was rather good

 

CY

[Scully]

Hello !

 

I'm 2nd year in Laval, and this morning we had a meeting where they told us that the program of 3rd and 4th years was all revised. The new program starting this summer will be:

 

6 weeks Internal Med

6 weeks Surgery

6 weeks Geriatrics

6 weeks Family Med (now in the 3rd year)

6 weeks Peds

6 weeks Psy

6 weeks Obst-Gyn

3 blocks of 3 weeks "integration", don't know what it is yet

3 weeks Social and Preventive Med

3 weeks Radiology-Anesthesiology (that is cool because almost everybody wanted to do an elective in these)

6 weeks Emergency Med

3 weeks Ambulatory Med

6 weeks to study LMCC and ECOS

3 weeks Elective in a Surgical Specialty

3 weeks Elective in any Med or Peds Specialty

And then 2 more Electives of 3 weeks in any specialty

For a total of 12 weeks in electives

 

Julie

[TimmyMax]

Hey,

 

6 weeks of geriatrics??? Barrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrf!

[noncestvrai]

I like their new programme at Laval, except for geriatrics.

 

BTW I'm back to the hospital...I guess the attendings did not appreciate 2AM calls for tylenol orders...

 

I'm back baby!

 

So I lost 1 week and 1 day of ward...of course, I did not make good use of that time...except for drinking and going out =)

 

noncestvrai

[CutieYellow]

Hello !

 

I'm 2nd year in Laval, and this morning we had a meeting where they told us that the program of 3rd and 4th years was all revised. The new program starting this summer will be:

 

6 weeks Internal Med

6 weeks Surgery

6 weeks Geriatrics

6 weeks Family Med (now in the 3rd year)

6 weeks Peds

6 weeks Psy

6 weeks Obst-Gyn

3 blocks of 3 weeks "integration", don't know what it is yet

3 weeks Social and Preventive Med

3 weeks Radiology-Anesthesiology (that is cool because almost everybody wanted to do an elective in these)

6 weeks Emergency Med

3 weeks Ambulatory Med

6 weeks to study LMCC and ECOS

3 weeks Elective in a Surgical Specialty

3 weeks Elective in any Med or Peds Specialty

And then 2 more Electives of 3 weeks in any specialty

For a total of 12 weeks in electives

 

Julie

 

 

Hello!

 

I like the six weeks format. It's just enough time i think to realize whether or not you like something. Plus the fact that family med is in 3rd yr is awesome - because at the moment, it totally sucks. Although like Timmy, I am kinda doubtful about 6 weeks in geriatrics...

 

You guys have more time to study LMCC - that's great! But only 12 weeks electives, guess the radiology/anes comes in taking that right...because we had 20 weeks elective.

 

All in all though, i like it !

 

 

NCV - i hate you. My stage wasn't even cancelled and i can't go. And well, gotta wait for the CSE results. IF they ever come up with one...because if it stalls past friday i'm officially on vacation!!

 

CY