Working in the US...

[Guest JD]

If a doctor attended medical school in Canada and also did a residency here, but later on (say just after completing residency) wanted to practice in the US, how would that be done? Writing licensing exams, applying for a residency there, etc.?

[Guest Ian Wong]

I honestly don't know. Perhaps some of the other med students here might have a better idea. As far as I am aware, for ENT anyways, after completing a Canadian ENT residency you would need to write a licensing exam which would basically be the American ENT board certification exam.

 

However, that is difficult/impossible to achieve at the moment as the pre-req for writing the US exam is having at least 4 years of your residency devoted to ENT. In the US, a five year ENT residency actually consists of the first year being a year of General Surgery followed by four years of ENT.

 

Up here in Canada, all of the ENT programs (except perhaps for McGill) do two years of "General Surgery" followed by three years of ENT. So the residency is still five years, but one year of ENT has been converted to an additional year of "General Surgery". As a result, if you come out of a Canadian ENT residency, at the moment you lack the pre-requisites to write the US exam, and therefore you cannot practice in the US.

 

I need to say upfront that I don't know much about all of this; this is something that I will work out once/if I get into residency, and theoretically, I think that's the best time to worry about it anyway seeing as these policies and pre-requisites are constantly evolving and changing. A policy that existed when you start medical school might very well be abolished by the time you graduate.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest Akane200]

From what I've heard, recognition of your Canadian residency experience is totally dependent on individual hospitals and locations in the States.

 

What they usually do is that they require you to have written USMLE steps 1 to 3 in the allotted time frame for the license. Step 3 is usually written within the first 1-3 years of residency.

 

As for the recognition of Canadian residency program that you are in, that will depend on the place (state) that you apply to. Some states fully recognize the canadian residency, while others will require you to do some other things in addition. Sometimes, this even depends on the individual hospital you apply to. So, it is possible to get an american license and experience while in Canada to be able to qualify for work in the US. It just depends on where you want to go and exactly what residency you are doing.