Sunday, June 15, 2008

Why is life so hard sometimes?

So, the things I need in a family medicine residency program are as follows:
1) be able to live with Ben
2) community and rural experience
3) time spent in centers that do not have specialty residents
4) time off to go to my own wedding
5) mountain biking
6) snowboarding

Things Ben needs in a residency program:
1) being able to live with me
2) being able to get a job as a foreign-trained engineer
3) mountain biking
4) snowboarding

Now we have to decide where we want to go.... We talked tonight about taking these two years and using them as an opportunity to take an adventure and go somewhere interesting before settling down for life and families and stuff. Even if we're not sure about babies and stuff yet. I came to realize that I'm ok with that. If he wants to go somewhere fun for 2 years, I'm fine with that. It's two years, I have lived in a foreign country for a year and I'm sure I could do more if I'm with Ben. Now we just have to decide where... before CaRMS

7 comments:

Liana said...

Calgary would fit most of those criteria, except for the no specialty residents (very important, in my opinion). If in their internal match you were able to get the Rockyview/Black Diamond site, you wouldn't run into specialty residents much since they're still mainly at the Foothills and PLC. And there's no shortage of need for engineers.

Prince George might be another option. Lots of rural experience, few specialty residents, lots of outdoorsy stuff. I just don't know if they need engineers up there.

Sudbury and Thunder Bay would probably also be reasonable...

Good luck whatever you decide!

medstudentitis said...

right now I'm really leaning towards Kelowna. I don't know what the job situations is, but the mountain biking is great and the location is awesome in terms of weather and fruits and wine. I'm not sure about Calgary, mostly because of the cost of housing situation. I feel like with inflation there, we would struggle for a while if we had to live off my salary alone while Ben found a job.

Dragonfly said...

Gluck with that.

Liana said...

I have 3 close friends who completed the program in Kelowna and they all really enjoyed it. Kelowna is actually getting pretty pricey as well, and BC residents don't make as much as Alberta residents.

I think the problem with most rural residencies is that you end up moving around lots to different rural sites (ie in the Red Deer residency, you spend 13 months in Red Deer and a minimum of 9 months in rural sites).

Housing in Calgary has really stabilized lately (we just bought a house!). I honestly don't think Ben would have a problem getting a job... I'm from a family of engineers.

Yes, obviously I'm biased :)

Seriously though, send me an email if you have any questions...

medstudentitis said...

Liana, would you advise doing an elective in Calgary if I was going to apply there for family? I don't have much elective time left. Thanks for your advice!

Liana said...

Not a bad idea... I can't say how Calgary's CARMS review works, but I know that in Red Deer, it showed us the person was serious if they'd done an elective with us.

I think you have to be a bit strategic about it and choose a doctor who's actually known to the program. So one option might to be to try to go to the sites that the U of C program actually uses... UCMC North Hill or Sunridge, or even Airdrie or Black Diamond.

And yes, we probably could find a room for you in our house :)

Amy said...

I vote for Kelowna. No particular reason ;). It's an awesome place to live. Mountain biking, road riding, wine, I can come visit, wine. Yeah and I hear the program is pretty good too.