Can I get licensed as a surgeon in Sweden?

[Heia]

Hi, I'm Brazilian and I'll enter medical school, here in Brazil, in one year.
My plan is to finish the 6 years of medical school here and then apply to 2-year residency in Sweden.
I'd do my best to impress the people working with me so they encourage me to stay in Sweden, because I want to be with my boyfriend.
After the residency period I'd like to specialize in cardiology, and then in cardiovascular surgery.

However, I did some research and it seems that because I won't go trough medical school in Sweden (I don't have the money to study abroad!) I can't ever be licensed as a surgeon, specially a cardiovascular surgeon, and operate in Sweden. From what I saw, the best I would get is a job as general surgeon, which is not what I want.

Someone please help me, I'm hoping the information I got is outdated.

From what I understood, Sweden only wants surgeons that went to medical school there, or at least, in Europe.

I'm really worried because I want to be with my boyfriend but I don't want to have to work below my abilities.

My goal is to complete medical school, residency and specializations in 12 years, in such a fashion that I'll finish my (formal) studies at the age of 32 (considering I'll enter medical school at the age of 18).

Swedes that are familiar with the process of foreign students going there to study, please help.
People from foreign countries (specially third world countries such as Brazil) that went to Sweden and went trough a situation similar to what I described (not going to school in Sweden but trying to get a job as a specific surgeon there), please help.

Thank you in advance.

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Edit: forgot to include that my boyfriend is also considering working in the UK and I wouldn't mind moving to the UK instead of Sweden, so if anyone has any information about residency in UK, I'd appreciate that too!

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[another visitor]

Hi,

First of all, kudos for your long and sincere description of your current situation, your hopes and dreams! I understand that your situation and the information you've found is causing a lot of stress and worries. I firmly believe that such an honest and desperate text deserves an answer, thus I made this account. Hopefully, I might be able to shed some light over your situation.

Okay, so from what experience do I say the things below?
I graduated from a Swedish medical program, did my internship/received my medical license in another EU-country, and now practice medicine in Sweden. I also have a bizarre interest in reading/learning about how to get a medical license in different countries. The information given below is from January 2016. My personal assessment is that this is not likely to change in the coming years, but what the hell do I know!?

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First, I would like to clarify that the information you have gotten is WRONG.
Once you have received a Brazilian medical license it is possible for you to convert this to a Swedish medical license, and then (formally) have the opportunity to join what field of speciality you want.
As you sure are aware of, cardiothorasic surgery is a small and competitive field of medicine, so there will be a lot of other qualified applicants. However, you being a graduate from Brazil DOES NOT hinder you from securing such a spot.
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So, now that we have that cleared that, lets move on to how you can obtain this.

Medical School
If you do med school in Brazil, once you have received your medical license, you can ask to have this converted to a Swedish one. You can read more about that process at Socialstyrelsen.
http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/applicationforswedishlicencetopractiseothercountries/doctorofmedicine

Cardiothorasic surgery
As mentioned earlier, this is a very competitive field of medicine. Many of their residents have either done research in the filed or worked as in similar specialties before being accepted to the clinic. Doing an elective period at a cardiothorasic surgery clinic might be an option during medschool, you might even be able to do it abroad in Sweden!
In Sweden, being a cardiologist is not necessary in order to pursue a career in cardiothorasic surgery, due to the fact that the cardiologist here don't do open procedures, but instead a lot of PCI. It will surely be seen as a merit, but why bother doing a 5-year residency in cardiology and then another 5-years in cardiothorasic surgery? A year or two in a surgical speciality, is just as mush of a merit.

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Anyway, all of this is waaaaay down the line, we're talking six years of med school, a licensing process of two-three years and your life, with all that has in store, happening at the same time. You do seem very confident in and focused on that it is cardiothorasic surgery that you want to do, and that everything else would be "below your abilities". I wonder why this is? Why this certainty?
During med school, going through different clinical rotations, both me and a lot of my classmates discovered that ones interests evolves and changes, depending on all kind of factors - inspiring tutors, boring tutors, ones wants and need, dreams of work-life-balance, need for adrenalin and so on.
There are a lot of other surgical specialties that might interest you - Ortopaedic surgery, Vascular surgery, Neurosurgery, Transplantation surgery (kidneys, liver, pancreas), Plastic surgery. What allures you so much about cardiothorasic surgery?

Lastly, as this will be a long journey for you, more questions might appear along the way.
I recommend you to visit lakarstudent.se, and up to the right theres a link to the "Forum", where you'll find the headlines Foreign applicants to medical school in Sweden and Foreign medical graduates coming to Sweden, where you can post any further questions. The moderator of the page has a lot of answers.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Heia]

First of all, thank you so much for your answer! It gave me a lot of hope, and also thank you very much for the resources, I'll go check them out as soon as possible!

Also, I agree with you when you said that all this is waaaay down the line! I figure that, even after reading the resources you provided, I could also ask a professor or two about these kinds of processes. I'm sure they must be used to getting questions about this from students.

Just one thing I'd like to clarify: when I said I don't want to work below my abilities, I meant that after being able to do heart surgeries I don't want to work as a general doctor who "only" went to medical school and stopped there. In other words, I don't want to only be allowed to do what usual doctors (that would be doctors without a post graduate) if I can perform heart surgeries. I'm sorry if I sounded arrogant. I didn't mean to demerit other doctors or surgeons, nor to put the field I'm interested in above other ones. Fields like neurosurgery also interest me a lot, but what I really want to do are heart surgeries for personal, family-related reasons