Another Choice
It presents as an overwhelming problem: the medical-health needs of the Canadian population to have the opportunity to obtain the services of a general practitioner, a family doctor. The acute shortages of medical practitioners in every field of medicine impedes the successful implementation of the country's health strategy. First and foremost, is the fact that millions of Canadians are unable to access the services of a family practitioner.
Canadian universities are not turning out new medical graduates in sufficient numbers to alleviate the shortage. Complicated by the fact that, given our universal health care system, some graduates succumb to the allure of offers to re-locate to the United States, which has no universal health care, and physicians are able to charge the public whatever they like, unlike Canada with set fees prescribed by the charter of the universal health care system.
Additionally, with a new administration coming into power in short order that has placed a priority on solving the problem of millions of medically uninsured Americans having no access to reasonable health care, Canada will soon face another problem. Recruiting agents from the United States will be certain to increase their tantalizing offers to Canadian-educated doctors as soon as the United States has been able to implement its own universal health care system.
To help ease the crisis of doctor shortage, the federal and provincial governments are increasingly looking to internationally trained doctors. Doctors trained abroad in other countries, arriving in Canada as landed immigrants and hoping to take up practise in Canada, however, soon discover that they must first write medical examinations to the standards taught and practised in Canada. To do this, it is incumbent upon them to enroll as medical students at Canadian universities, which have limited spaces, before they can qualify to practise.
Many doctors, despite having practised successfully for decades in their countries of origin, will never achieve the kind of practise proficiency required in Canada because the route to achieving that standard is lengthy, costly and frustrating. And because, as heads of families newly emigrated to the country they must work to provide for their families. Leading to countless skilled individuals with medical knowledge working at menial, minimum-wage jobs they may never be able to escape from.
There are attempts underway to try to solve the problem of medical expertise going untapped in a country which urgently requires additional medical practitioners. One of them is being undertaken in Alberta, where a non-profit organization, the Bredin Institute, assists newly-arrived immigrants to find employment through a free-of-charge 25-week program that builds on the foreign education of doctors, teaching them paramedic skills; advanced first aid and ambulance driving.
Part of the training, post-study, is the completion of mandatory initial courses, then work as emergency medical responders, leading to emergency medical technicians, each progressive level of accomplishment teaching an increasing ability to care for patients. The program looks for those with medical training who haven't embarked on accreditation as practising doctors in Canada, but those who will find satisfaction in using their skills in the health field, instead of working at dead-end jobs.
"It will give them that ability to stay within health care and earn a decent wage, compared to what they have been making up to this point", said one of the program's patrons. The choice for many is as simple as eschewing those part-time, minimum-wage or irregular working hours at Home Depot, The Brick, or Wendy's, for enrolment in the international doctor-to-paramedic program.
The Bredin Institute initiative promises to present as an appealing new choice for skilled medical immigrants to Canada, one that could be replicated elsewhere within the country. Its purpose twofold; to restore dignity to medically-schooled immigrants unable to pursue full medical qualifications in Canada, and to bulk up Canada's much-needed medical infrastructure response to meet the needs of the country's growing population.
There are some prerequisites for enrolling in the program. An acceptable level of English-language proficiency is a requirement, along with the successful completion of medical equivalency exams through the Medical Council of Canada. The program offers personal satisfaction to the skilled individual, able to remain in the field of health delivery, and to earn a decent salary ranging from $58,000 to $72,000.
Proving what industriously creative minds can accomplish in helping to solve two quite distinct, but related problems.
Canadian universities are not turning out new medical graduates in sufficient numbers to alleviate the shortage. Complicated by the fact that, given our universal health care system, some graduates succumb to the allure of offers to re-locate to the United States, which has no universal health care, and physicians are able to charge the public whatever they like, unlike Canada with set fees prescribed by the charter of the universal health care system.
Additionally, with a new administration coming into power in short order that has placed a priority on solving the problem of millions of medically uninsured Americans having no access to reasonable health care, Canada will soon face another problem. Recruiting agents from the United States will be certain to increase their tantalizing offers to Canadian-educated doctors as soon as the United States has been able to implement its own universal health care system.
To help ease the crisis of doctor shortage, the federal and provincial governments are increasingly looking to internationally trained doctors. Doctors trained abroad in other countries, arriving in Canada as landed immigrants and hoping to take up practise in Canada, however, soon discover that they must first write medical examinations to the standards taught and practised in Canada. To do this, it is incumbent upon them to enroll as medical students at Canadian universities, which have limited spaces, before they can qualify to practise.
Many doctors, despite having practised successfully for decades in their countries of origin, will never achieve the kind of practise proficiency required in Canada because the route to achieving that standard is lengthy, costly and frustrating. And because, as heads of families newly emigrated to the country they must work to provide for their families. Leading to countless skilled individuals with medical knowledge working at menial, minimum-wage jobs they may never be able to escape from.
There are attempts underway to try to solve the problem of medical expertise going untapped in a country which urgently requires additional medical practitioners. One of them is being undertaken in Alberta, where a non-profit organization, the Bredin Institute, assists newly-arrived immigrants to find employment through a free-of-charge 25-week program that builds on the foreign education of doctors, teaching them paramedic skills; advanced first aid and ambulance driving.
Part of the training, post-study, is the completion of mandatory initial courses, then work as emergency medical responders, leading to emergency medical technicians, each progressive level of accomplishment teaching an increasing ability to care for patients. The program looks for those with medical training who haven't embarked on accreditation as practising doctors in Canada, but those who will find satisfaction in using their skills in the health field, instead of working at dead-end jobs.
"It will give them that ability to stay within health care and earn a decent wage, compared to what they have been making up to this point", said one of the program's patrons. The choice for many is as simple as eschewing those part-time, minimum-wage or irregular working hours at Home Depot, The Brick, or Wendy's, for enrolment in the international doctor-to-paramedic program.
The Bredin Institute initiative promises to present as an appealing new choice for skilled medical immigrants to Canada, one that could be replicated elsewhere within the country. Its purpose twofold; to restore dignity to medically-schooled immigrants unable to pursue full medical qualifications in Canada, and to bulk up Canada's much-needed medical infrastructure response to meet the needs of the country's growing population.
There are some prerequisites for enrolling in the program. An acceptable level of English-language proficiency is a requirement, along with the successful completion of medical equivalency exams through the Medical Council of Canada. The program offers personal satisfaction to the skilled individual, able to remain in the field of health delivery, and to earn a decent salary ranging from $58,000 to $72,000.
Proving what industriously creative minds can accomplish in helping to solve two quite distinct, but related problems.
Labels: Canada, Health, Human Relations
posted by Pieface @ 6:02 PM
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