This weekend

Hello all,
Today has been a good day. Last night I attended the section of teachers dinner at the Family Medicine Forum - it was at Hart House at U of T. My fiend Michelle and her husband were there and it was really nice to see them. Also met some other scholarship winners from Ottawa and Winnipeg. Then today at 8:30 a.m. (yawn) Ben and I were in the Sheraton ballroom waiting for my name to be announced to receive my scholarship. It was really nice. Ruth Wilson (the president of the college, stepping down this year, and a mentor of mine) gave me my award along with the man from Scotia Bank who was wearing a nice purple/blue outfit :) It was super. Ruth gave me a hug and the bank guy was fantastic - he was like 'way to go!' Then Ben and I went around and talked to people from all of the residency programs. Asked a few questions, schmoozed a bit, etc. I missed the lunch because Ben and I had horrific headaches, but I'm really looking forward to being able to go to more of the forum next year in Calgary. Unfortunately, because of my exam, I wasn't able to go to the week-day talks which looked SO interesting.

So, M and 2S asked about post-grad training in Canada. This is how it works from undergrad to post-grad.

1. Get an undergrad degree or at least 3 years of one
2. 4 years of medical school
3. Residency: Family medicine is 2 years, most other programs are 4 or 5 years, for example, obstetrics and gynecology (5 years), general internal medicine (4 years; specialty matches occur after 3rd year of IM residency), urology (5 years), general surgery (5 years), Pediatrics (4 years), etc. etc.
4. Fellowships - say you want to be a colorectal surgeon - you would go and do a fellowship after your general internal medicine specialty which vary in length - usually 2 years or more. Family medicine residents can do a variety of third year programs including anesthesia, emergency medicine and other things. These end after 1 year.
5. Start practicing :)