Returning to Canada after emergency medicine residency in the US

[Epidemic]

Hi all,

 

Anyone know what's involved in returning to Canada to practice emergency medicine after completing residency in the US? Is it complicated by the fact that the US emergency residency programs are only 3 or 4 year long? Any info would help. Also, are emergency medicine docs that don't go the CCFP-EM route able to work in walk-in clinics?

 

Thanks.

[Ian Wong]

Heya,

 

The place that you would want to visit is the Royal College website, which determines board certification for Emergency Medicine (5 year residency programs) in Canada.

 

https://www.medical.org/u/index_e.php

 

Specifically, here is the information listed for Emergency Medicine.

 

http://rcpsc.medical.org/information/index.php?specialty=122&submit=Select

 

For people with US residency training, you need to undergo a process known as "Preliminary assessment of training", which involves sending documention of your rotations/experiences as a US resident to the Royal College. From there, they will determine whether your US residency training is sufficient to allow you to write the Royal College exam, or whether additional training is first necessary.

 

Given that EM in the US is either 3 or 4 years in length, while the Canadian Royal College EM residency is 5 years in length, almost certainly you would need additional training time to make it up to that 5 years in length.

 

What muddles the issue is the CCFP-EM program in Canada, which uses 2 years of Family Medicine + 1 year of EM fellowship, getting you to an independantly-practising EM physician in 3 years' time. However, I suspect that the rotations encountered in the FM + CCFP-EM pathway is likely to differ from what you would see in a US EM residency.

 

The preliminary assessment of training information can be found here:

 

http://rcpsc.medical.org/residency/certification/assessment/index.php

 

What may be the most prudent avenue of all is to email the credentialling section of the Royal College directly, and just ask them. Their email address can be found at the above preliminary assessment webpage.

 

It is: credentials ( at ) rcpsc.edu

 

Ian

[moo]

For emerg this is not a problem. I know several emerg docs in Edmonton who did their emerg residency in the US and they have full FRCPC certification. In fact, one even encouraged me to go back to the US if I was interested in emerg (which I am not) because training is so much better (more trauma and such, especially in big centers). THe length of training really doesn't matter because hospitals hire CCFP-EM (3 yrs) people along with the FRCPC people.

[nowai]

Does this procedure generalise to other specialties? I was under the, perhaps false, impression that while it is simple for a Canadian trained doctor to practice in the states after residency, it is much more involved for a US trained doctor to practice in Canada after residency (even if they are a Canadian citizen).

 

I've seen the difficulty that IMGs face when trying to get their foreign degrees accepted in Canada. Will a Canadian graduate from a top teir (ie, Stanford, UCSF, Harvard, JHU, etc) residency program have to jump through the same hoops that a doctor trained in India will?

[andros]

Hi nowai,

 

I don't know how much is involved in coming to Canada to practice after doing residency in the States, but I have worked with a number of specialists who did their training in the US.

 

I believe the process of working in Canada is easier if someone did residency in the US as opposed to India (for example).

 

From the RCPSC website that Ian posted:

 

"An international medical graduate (IMG) is defined as someone who has completed his/her postgraduate residency training outside of Canada or the United States."

 

so at least from that it seems like it would be easier since you wouldn't be considered an "IMG".

 

I suggest you take a look at that website and call or email someone in order to get some knowledgeable information.

 

Best of luck

 

Does this procedure generalise to other specialties? I was under the, perhaps false, impression that while it is simple for a Canadian trained doctor to practice in the states after residency, it is much more involved for a US trained doctor to practice in Canada after residency (even if they are a Canadian citizen).

 

I've seen the difficulty that IMGs face when trying to get their foreign degrees accepted in Canada. Will a Canadian graduate from a top teir (ie, Stanford, UCSF, Harvard, JHU, etc) residency program have to jump through the same hoops that a doctor trained in India will?

[nowai]

Thanks Andros!

[Epidemic]

Hi Everyone,

 

Thought I'd update my post. I tried to find out the answer to my own question and was bounced around A LOT. Long story short, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada told me that you'd have to complete extra years of training (so as to total 5 years of Emergency Medicine training) in order to practice emergency medicine in Canada. When I asked how this made sense given that family docs only receive a total of 3 years of training (only 1 of which is emergency medicine specific) they had no reply. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that the 3 year route is run by Family Medicine and the 5 year route is run by Emergency Medicine - they're totally separate certifying bodies. Family medicine probably won't certify you because you don't have training in family medicine and Emergency medicine won't certify you because you don't have enough training.

 

I'm sure there's a loophole somewhere because I've seen jobs in Niagara Falls, Canada, that are willing to hire US-trained emergency medicine docs. Anyhow, it's frustrating. Let me know if you find out anything else.

[extrachromasome]

From what I understand you can work in Canada using the ABEM certification. That way neither the FRCP nor the CCFP-EM is required. You have to be hired by the chief of staff though, of course, and attitudes towards the ABEM certification very. I once spoke with one of the top ER docs at Foothills (Calgary). He said they tend to hire applicants in preferance to how many years of EM specific training they had, ie FRCP (5 years) ahead of ABEM (3 or 4) ahead of CCFP-EM (1 year). I imagine there are other places that prefer CCFP-EM to ABEM.