Career suicide?

[palmpalm]

Hi all,

 

I am a Canadian studying medicine abroad. Most of my fellow classmates are Americans and are planning on writing the USMLE and going to the states. Our 4th years just got their American match results and they got some great residencies. The school has a great track record in the states with many of our graduates in some big time positions. The thing is, I want to return to Canada; and I understand it is getting easier to do that. My question is, if I want a relatively easy-to-get residency, such as family or internal med., would it be career suicide for me to NOT take the USMLE and just apply to Canadian programs?

 

What do y'all think? :-)

[blinknoodle]

Hey there,

 

I recommend talking with other Canadians in your school to see what they decided to do and why.

 

I found that the few Canadian IMGs I met had written the USMLE.

 

It is up to you to decide how much effort it will be to write the USMLEs (especially since you will have to write the MCCEE, MCCQE, etc to return to Canada) and how safe you feel the climate will be to return to Canada. In 3-4 years, it is hard to predict what will happen. Not only with the regulations in Canada, but also your interests. You may find that you don't want FM/IM after doing rotations in those areas, and feel trapped if you hadn't taken the USMLEs as a back-up.

 

Good luck with your decisions.

[Nephets]

Just FYI, internal is becoming tougher and tougher to get into. This year I think there were only 5 english (9 in Quebec if you know french) IM spots left after the first round (see the CaRMS website for exact numbers). With increasing class sizes this will only get worse. They say they are increasing residency spots too but at a slower pace and more so in family. If I was you, I would write the USMLE just in case. It never hurts to have a back up.

N.