Ireland for internship?

[raymdc89]

Hello

Some basic facts - I am a Canadian citizen, and Canadian only. I am in my final year of medical school in an Australian university. There is a serious shortage of intern positions in Australia (more like way too many upcoming graduates) and thus international students (like me) will be low priority to be given jobs. And if I don't get a job, I get no registration, and cannot legally practice medicine in Australia/NZ.

Seeing as this is the UK/Ireland thread, I won't get into the details but you're welcome to have a look at the Australian/NZ forum, I'm sure there are posts about this issue. The entire country's medical schools are talking about it.

And of course I've read all those horror stories about trying to return to Canada for post-graduate medical training as an IMG.

Apparently IMG's also have a tough time trying to get into the UK at the F1 level, but I don't have stats or actually spoken to anyone in the UK about this.

Is the situation same in Ireland ('forget it' if you're a non-EU IMG)? Anyone know?

Anyone know about whether it's reasonable for me to try the UK or Ireland, at all?

And even if I do end up there somehow, as a non-citizen I'm assuming the chances for entering specialty training are poor.

I know it's a very broad question, so I suppose I'll be looking at a very broad answer. And then maybe we can go from there.

Thanks to whoever can give me some info.

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[Lbgem]

Hello

Some basic facts - I am a Canadian citizen, and Canadian only. I am in my final year of medical school in an Australian university. There is a serious shortage of intern positions in Australia (more like way too many upcoming graduates) and thus international students (like me) will be low priority to be given jobs. And if I don't get a job, I get no registration, and cannot legally practice medicine in Australia/NZ.

Seeing as this is the UK/Ireland thread, I won't get into the details but you're welcome to have a look at the Australian/NZ forum, I'm sure there are posts about this issue. The entire country's medical schools are talking about it.

And of course I've read all those horror stories about trying to return to Canada for post-graduate medical training as an IMG.

Apparently IMG's also have a tough time trying to get into the UK at the F1 level, but I don't have stats or actually spoken to anyone in the UK about this.

Is the situation same in Ireland ('forget it' if you're a non-EU IMG)? Anyone know?

Anyone know about whether it's reasonable for me to try the UK or Ireland, at all?

I know it's a very broad question, so I suppose I'll be looking at a very broad answer. And then maybe we can go from there.

Thanks to whoever can give me some info.

If you look at the HSE's (believe that's the acronym) website you'll see the ranking. Graduates of Ireland medical schools that are EU citizens get top priority. Then it'll be non-EU, so you'll get the leftover positions. It might even be EU citizens graduating from Ireland school > non-EU graduating from Ireland schools > non-EU graduating elsewhere, but double check me on that if you go to their website.

I find it really weird there's a shortage of intern positions over there. I've heard quite a few Irish flock over to Aussie/NZ because of the poor junior doctor situation over here.

 

[raymdc89]

Thanks for the quick reply and the website.

Yeah there's a terrible shortage of internships here. Thanks to Australian government mismanagement, they slashed medical school spots back in the 80's or 90's (something like that), got screwed over when a serious shortage of doctors occurred, massively over-corrected themselves by doubling the number of medical school positions in mid/late 2000's, and opened tons of new med schools.

And seeing as medical school spots are Federally controlled, state health departments (who control jobs in each state's hospitals) are oblivious to this and suddenly have to deal with too many graduates.

And so in the end they don't really solve their original doctor-shortage problem, or at least not very well.

Yeah, I've heard about the poor junior doctor situation in Ireland, somewhere when I was looking stuff up on the internet. But I'm almost not concerned about that anymore... 'poor (working?) situation' is still better than being completely unemployed without any prospect of continuing what you started in medical school.

I'm sure the ranking is similar in most countries (nationals in our universities > internationals from our universities > internationals from international universities... and add that EU stuff if you're talking about Europe), so I'm more interested in whether people out there know the numbers, eg. if there are JUST enough internships in Ireland to accommodate Irish/EU grads, or is there usually good number of spots unfilled by Irish/EU grads, etc?

Thanks.

 

[Lbgem]

I was told by my experienced elders (upperclassmen) not to count on the spots remaining for non-EUs, as there were few and/or in very undesirable places. Don't have exact numbers for you though.

 

[raymdc89]

Thanks. Well, as an Irish graduate (I'm assuming you are), why would you count on those spots when you can aim for better? And also, what is considered an 'undesirable' spot in Ireland?

 

[Lbgem]

Thanks. Well, as an Irish graduate (I'm assuming you are), why would you count on those spots when you can aim for better? And also, what is considered an 'undesirable' spot in Ireland?

A fourth year would be better to chime in on this. I'm a first year over here (Ireland). Plan A for me is to match back home, plan B if that doesn't work out is to match here, which should be doable since I wouldn't be counted as non-EU.

I'm completely guessing now but undesirable spots I'd imagine would be places people don't want to work due to location, their mentors, lack of advancement compared to other more desirable spots. That's the way it is for the states anyways. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Try the Irish forums: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=392 if you don't get the answer here.