Canadians coming back as fully trained doctors?

[sprinkles]

Hello all,

 

So I was thinking about this and was looking through the forums and couldn't seem to find my answer. (feel free to link me if this has been discussed)

 

We all know that if you go to a non-Canadian medical school and decide to come back it is close to impossible due to lower rates of matching CARMS wise. But what if you, for example, go to medical school in the US, get your residency done in the US, and then come over to Canada for a job. What is the likelihood of you being able to find a job in a non family doctor position? Is it impossible then too?

 

Or what about 'in between' ? Is there a way to match into a Canadian residency program half way through your american one? (From what I have researched there doesn't seem to be a way but I thought I would ask anyways)

 

In my mind it would be very appealing in terms of pure funding of the government way for these doctors to get hired because you have fully trained doctors you did not spend a penny on to train!

 

So what I guess I am asking is....is it impossible OR very likely to be able to find a job in Canada as a 'fully trained doctor' (freshly done residency)

[sprinkles]

anyone??

 

10char

[leviathan]

If you do family medicine in the US, the UK, Australia and a few other places then you can get licensed back in Canada. Getting a job in family med is not a problem. For specialties it all depends on what specialty, where in Canada you're looking for work, where you did your training, whether the Royal College feels like recognizing that training etc.

[boanssi]

So it is realistic to get licensed to practice medicine in Canada as a non-Canadian specialist?

[Mourning Cloak]

So it is realistic to get licensed to practice medicine in Canada as a non-Canadian specialist?

 

Yes, but:

1) As a general rule, you must be a Canadian citizen

2) You'll have to pass the Royal College exams in your specialty

 

Jurisdictions MAY recognize your non-Canadian training temporarily (if they're desperate enough) but nowadays almost variably you are required to sit and pass the Canadian Royal College exams within a certain period of time. This may be easy, or hard (Canadian exams may differ quite a lot from the American ones).

 

Gone are the days when there weren't enough qualified candidates . . . even in the thinnest of specialties, there is now a surplus of well-qualified foreign (typically US) grads. People fleeing Obamacare, maybe? This is on top of the fact that there are a helluva lot of Canadian grads getting churned out, to the point where job shortages in several specialities have developed.

 

As Leviathan noted above, family medicine is probably your best bet for making yourself as marketable as possible.