Question about Plastics

[Mac8]

Hello,

 

I am curious as to how long a Plastic surgery residency is? How does one go about it, ie. do you first do a general surgery residency (which is 5 years right??) then further specialize from there?

[blinknoodle]

You can enter plastic surgery straight after medical school. It is a 5 year residency and you can sub-specialize after your 5 years.

[Mac8]

Thanks for your response! Can you do a residency in plastic surgery at any medical school in Canada?

[blinknoodle]

Only certain medical schools have plastic surgery as a residency program.

See here on the Carms site for more info for each school's program:

http://www.carms.ca/jsp/program.jsp?path=../jsp/../program_new/quota/qplastics

[Mac8]

thanks for the link! As a new medical student, what can one do to maximize your chances for getting into plastics, understanding it is a highly competitive residency? Research, shadowing, clerkships in the area...any suggestions are apprecciated. thanks

[Kirsteen]

thanks for the link! As a new medical student, what can one do to maximize your chances for getting into plastics, understanding it is a highly competitive residency? Research, shadowing, clerkships in the area...any suggestions are apprecciated. thanks

Hi there,

 

I once had a look at Plastics as a potential career and yes, it's a competitive specialty to enter. Some schools are quite picky re: students completing electives there before they are granted a CaRMS interview so it's good to know which ones those are. (UofT is one school which had this policy.) Any demonstrated interest in the field is positive and as you alluded to above, that can be achieved via Plastics research, shadowing, meetings, presentations, etc.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[noncestvrai]

Plastics, Plastics, Plastics, maybe one in psych...=)

 

You need to do electives in plastics, research, do well...as in most competitive specialties.

 

noncestvrai

[blinknoodle]

Plastics, Plastics, Plastics, maybe one in psych...=)

 

You need to do electives in plastics, research, do well...as in most competitive specialties.

 

noncestvrai

 

Actually a psych elective may be able to help you fill out the psychological profiling that many plastic programs make applicants fill out! (I kid you not about the profiling!)

[xylem29]

Hi there,

 

I once had a look at Plastics as a potential career and yes, it's a competitive specialty to enter. Some schools are quite picky re: students completing electives there before they are granted a CaRMS interview so it's good to know which ones those are. (UofT is one school which had this policy.) Any demonstrated interest in the field is positive and as you alluded to above, that can be achieved via Plastics research, shadowing, meetings, presentations, etc.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

 

When you say shadowing, are you referring to observerships during years 1 & 2? And by meetings and presentations, do you mean simply attend them or also give some presentations yourself?

[Kirsteen]

When you say shadowing, are you referring to observerships during years 1 & 2? And by meetings and presentations, do you mean simply attend them or also give some presentations yourself?

Hi there,

 

Yep, observerships are during the pre-clerkship years. As for meetings and presentations, if you can do some presentations yourself then it only helps to demonstrate your interest in the field and that's often a positive when CaRMS ranking time rolls around. Simply attending the conferences is also useful as you can, at least, be around some of the folks within your field of choice.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen