Canadian Students wanting to stay in Europe

[maserati]

I am a Canadian student interested in living/working in Europe in the future. However, all the info that I can find so far are geared towards students wanting to return to North America for clinicals / residency.

I am looking at Poland/Hungary

1) Can N.Am. students get clinicals / residency in Poland

2) Can N.Am. students, who have received their MD, eventually practice anywhere in Europe, or will they be confined to whichever country issued the MD degree? Ex. If I get my Polish MD, can I practice in Spain/France seeing that I can speak both languages fluently.

Cheers!

[malina]

Europe is much more open to foreign-trained doctors than north america. I'm canadian too, and I'm thinking of going to europe to do an md, and then probably stay there. So far, this is the info that I have:

-i've contacted a few grads from the english med program at jagielonski, and they told me that it's not a problem to get the degree recognized in the us and canada - SO - it should not be a problem getting it recognized in other european countries since it's all europe, european countries are not as tight-assed as canada in recognizing foreign degrees, and they're all part of the eu

Just to make sure thought, you might want to call the authorizing med body of the country that you want to live in later, and find out exactly what you would have to do to get recognized (probably write a language test and a med test).

Whatever you decide, good luck.

By the way, why don't you look into studying in france or spain if you're fluent in those languages - I'm not sure how france and spain do it, but I know that med school in germany is for free - good chance that it's the same in france, and maybe spain. You'll save yourself a lot of cash that way, and you won't have a problem with any qualifications.

[devildoc8404]

Malina's suggestion is a good one - if you find that you are eligible to study in an EU country where you already speak the language, it will probably save you a pantload of money. If I had a snowball's chance of getting into med school in Germany (I speak German), I'd do that in a heartbeat. One of the internists at the hospital where I work took his MD at Bonn after undergrad in the States, and he had a great time and is a tremendous physician. No tuition debt, either!

One of the great things I am learning about studying in Europe is as long as the school is in an EU country (and you speak the language), things seem to transfer across pretty easily. Good luck with everything! :D

[diogenes]

One thing you need to be clear about is that the rules governing inter-member acceptance of medical qualifications and the free movement of doctors in EU states are valid for citizens of EU countries: not those who have merely obtained their MD there.
As Canadians/Americans therefore it is likely that you will have to do a post-graduation licensing exam. (including, probably, a language competency test).
In some countries the biggest obstacle will be obtaining a work permit: a number of EU countries have a surplus of doctors - and pay those who are in employment quite poorly.
I'm not suggesting that it is impossible - far from it. However, I can only echo Malina's advice to home in on particular countries and study carefully all their licensing and visa conditions for non-EU nationals.

[malina]

As for the non-eu citizenship - i got a little bit of advise, since you might be in a much better position to move around europe and get qualified with an eu passport. and that advice is - stay single!!! I'm not sure how hard/easy it is to get polish citizenship (or citizenship from other eu countries), but if you stay single, if worse comes to worse, you can always get hitched and have your papers in no time. yeah, I know that a lot of people will probably not like my advise, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Simple as that.

[Argon]

Which EU countries have a surplus of doctors?

[diogenes]

I don't have up-to-date figures, but in the recent past there have been problems in -
Italy - fairly horrendous by all accounts.
France
Spain
Germany
Austria
UK - until recently trained insufficient medics and was a volume importer of md's. Now it is breaking even and has started to erect fearsome barriers to would-be migrants.These are just a few that I have heard of - some may no longer belong in that list and there are, I expect, others which should be included.
Anyone concerned about the numbers should also look very carefully at the former Communist countries. Even where there is officially little or no MD unemployment this is sometimes belied by pitiful pay and fierce competition for relatively few post-graduation training posts - upon which career progression is based.

[riverhead]

I've heard that Germany and Spain have a shortage of doctors and are looking for IMGs at present.