Guest coastal79 Posted January 21, 2004 Report Share Posted January 21, 2004 A letter in the most recent CMAJ referred me back to this article from last September. It talks about a "common PGY-1 year" for medical graduates. What does PGY-1 mean and how would this be better or worse than the current system of graduate education? The original article is below. Cheers Correcting fundamental problems with medical education in Canada and addressing the shortage of family physicians appeared to be major priorities for delegates to the CMA’s 2003 annual meeting. They strongly endorsed motions supporting creation of a common PGY-1 year for medical graduates in order to provide more flexibility and encourage more students to enter family medicine. Support for some form of rotating internship or common PGY-1 year has long been endorsed by the CMA. However, the decline in the popularity of family medicine and growing complaints from students forced to choose a specialty early in training have caused alarm bells to ring. The resolutions were debated after a session on issues surrounding the physician shortage and problems with medical education. Dr. Alecs Chochinov, chair of the CMA’s Council on Medical Education, said the proportion of medical students choosing to enter family medicine has declined from 34.7% in 1997 to 24.8% this year. He said the growing debt load is one factor forcing students to select higher-paying specialties. Chochinov also bolstered the case for a common PGY-1 year by noting that the number of physicians starting their careers in family medicine has declined from 80% in the early 1990s to 45% today. The only opposition came from an Ontario physician, a former nurse who said that the common entry year was “a year of service rather than education. I worked with you then. You were exhausted. You weren’t learning.” Other resolutions called for: • development of a national locum licence; • establishment of an independent health institute for human resources to conduct research; • more financial aid to offset escalating tuition fees for medical students. — Pat Rich, CMAJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mydream88 Posted January 21, 2004 Report Share Posted January 21, 2004 Hi, It sounds like the former nurse/physician is opposing the common entry year because it is not a year of service. but the whole point of the article is to create more time for residents to provide service to help minimize the doctor shortage? I am confused :/:) mydream88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted January 21, 2004 Report Share Posted January 21, 2004 Hi there, Postgraduate year-1 (PGY-1) refers to first year of a residency program. Along that vein, there can be PGY-2, -3, -4, etc., depending on the length of your residency. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest coastal79 Posted January 22, 2004 Report Share Posted January 22, 2004 Thanks Kirsteen (ever the Oracle to which we can turn for answers ). So, if a common PGY-1 year were to be introduced, it would simply be a reversion to a slightly different version of the one year internship that was de rigeur for the first year after med school. Personally, I like the idea of learning about many different areas, and not having to choose what I want to specialize in during my 4th year. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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