Residency-exchange programs
Online posting: March 11, 1997
Published in print: April 15, 1997 CMAJ 1997;156:1119
The resident-selection season is upon us again, and the
process cannot help but provoke some thoughts on some of its
apparent flaws. Canadian medical graduates are increasingly
apprehensive about obstacles to returning to their home province
if they choose to train elsewhere. As a result, they are often
making choices that may have more to do with family and geography
than with education.
One approach that may partly answer new graduates' worries
would be to modify the current resident-training system to allow
and encourage trainees to spend at least 1 or 2 years of training
in another Canadian program. If this idea was widely accepted, an
exchange between programs could develop so that there would be no
alteration in the total number of residents in any program. For
example, residents in anesthesia at the University of British
Columbia could do their third year at the University of Toronto,
with a Toronto resident in anesthesia moving to Vancouver.
If the present resident-selection process and educational
system are allowed to continue without change, there will likely
be a great diminution in exposure to different ways of thinking
and working as well as in opportunities to engage in special
learning experiences. The increasing geographic narrowness of
medical education in Canada should be examined not only for its
impact on residents but also for its implications for the medical
profession and the quality of health care in this country.
William L. Maurice, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
maurice@unixg.ubc.ca
CMAJ email
CMAJ Readers' Forum