New Docs Prep For Residency

Saturday, March 15, 2008 04:50 AM

Prince George, B.C. – The Northern Medical program is celebrating success as its first group of graduates prepare to start the residency stage of their education.

With 62 specialties from which to choose, the program is pleased to note 16 of the 23 graduates have decided to train in family medicine, and most (13 of the 16) will do so in rural, or northern residency programs. That percentage is well above the normal 30-40% who select family medicine at other institutions.

That is not to say the balance of students isn’t interested in northern or rural health. The problem is there are 200 medical students in B.C. hitting the residency program this spring. There are only so many hospitals and facilities which are approved to provide a residency and there are just 16 residency opportunities in northern B.C. (15 in family medicine, one in psychiatry)

The highlights of the Northern Medical placements are that 6 of the eight spots at the Prince George Family Practice Residency program are now occupied by Northern Medical Program students, one has been placed in the new Peace-Liard residency program, and one has been placed in the new Psychiatry residency position in Prince George. In addition, another student is set for residency in rural surgery in Ontario.

The Northern Medical program is working towards increasing its residency opportunities in the north. It’s expected that the total number of residency places in northern BC will double between 2003 and 2010.

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Posted on Saturday, March 15, 2008 04:50 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: tinyapplecork on March 15 2008 11:51 AM

I would like to know more about why there are so few residency opportunities.

Posted by: owl on March 15 2008 2:48 PM

$$$$$$$$$$$$ ....

:-(

I blieve only two programs in Canada are dedicated to the concept of graduating doctors who will hopefully chooses rural medicine. It is quite possible that we will be feeding other remote parts of Canada with these graduates. At the same time, doctors from other parts of Canada and the world have been feeding BC with doctors in general for many decades, if ever, since we have not been educating to our provincial need.

If we were to run education programs here only to feed our own needs, we would have few if any programs here.

Posted by: Palopu on March 15 2008 6:51 PM

If the local residencys are filled in Prince George for the next two years where do next years graduates go and the following year? They would obviously have to go somewhere else. It looks like we are already graduating doctors for other areas.