Amid a shortage of healthcare workers, medical students and new doctors in Canada are struggling to find opportunities in their field to help fill much-needed gaps in the country’s healthcare system.
Dr. Desmond Leddin, a professor of medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, says more and more Canadians are looking for opportunities outside of Canada to complete their medical education or find training programs in their field to land. a job.
Leddin says Canada must expand the process of accepting new students into medical school as the country continues to struggle with a shortage of nurses and doctors as hospitals are overwhelmed by a “triple epidemic” of influenza, RSV and COVID-19.
According to Canadian Institution for Health Information, there were 93,998 physicians working in Canada in 2021, a slight increase of 2% from 2020, when 92,166 physicians were reported. This represents approximately 246 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants.
“One in 10 students who apply to medical school in Canada is admitted,” Leddin told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday. “The number of places is limited. It was a decision that was made several years ago when it was perceived, that incredibly now, that there was a surplus of doctors, and these changes were put in place and they have not been cancelled.”
After medical students complete their undergraduate studies, they will then need to complete postgraduate medical training or “residency” at a medical facility to gain hands-on experience in their field, Leddin says. However, in Canada, many students struggle to find residency opportunities, which is why many look outside the country to complete their education.
“These students who practice abroad have difficulty accessing postgraduate training in Canada and as a result, they go to the United States, Great Britain and other countries instead of returning home” , said Leddin.
Additionally, international physicians face similar hurdles to practice in Canada due to the difficult process to obtain a medical license.
Currently, non-Canadian physicians and health care practitioners trained outside of Canada often have to go through a lengthy and costly process to be licensed to work in their field.
THERE ARE SOLUTIONS
For practitioners in Canada who train outside the country, Leddin says more provinces are starting to offer more opportunities to recent medical graduates who have studied abroad, but the process is slowly emerging.
In August, Newfoundland announced five residency slots for Canadian students educated abroad who wish to return home. In addition, New Scotland has created 10 student training positions this month, open to Canadians and non-Canadians who have trained abroad.
A similar program can also help attract more help from international and Canadian healthcare workers.
Health experts have also called for a simpler process to streamline foreign doctors wanting to practice in Canada through a national program. This year, the former president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Katherine Smart, called for a path to certification for each province to help alleviate the health crisis in Canada by speeding up the process to make come more healthcare workers from around the world.
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