Changes in career plans
during medical training and practice:
It's time to look ahead and act
W. Dale Dauphinee, MD, FRCPC
Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 154: 1049-1052
Dr. Dauphinee is executive director of the Medical Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.
This editorial represents the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of the Medical Council of Canada.
Paper reprints of the full text may be obtained from: Dr. W. Dale Dauphinee, Medical Council of Canada, PO Box 8234, Stn. T, Ottawa ON K1G 3H7; fax 613 521-9417
Abstract
Major changes in physician-resource policies and in the structuring of medical licensure requirements in the past decade have resulted in a less flexible system with respect to both choosing and changing a career path in medicine. The survey results reported by Drs. Susan Shaw, Gordon Goplen and Donald S. Houston in this issue (see pages 1035 to 1038 [abstract]) indicate that a high percentage of physicians now practising in Saskatchewan changed their career plans after graduation. The author argues that this finding points to the need to re-examine the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate medical education. The present system needs to be made more flexible so that medical students can gain sufficient clinical experience before deciding on an area of practice and to give practising physicians who want to change specialties the option of retraining.
| CMAJ April 1, 1996 (vol 154, no 7) |