hi snowflake.
first of all, im not familiar with the majority of us/uk terms such as residents, interns etc. google tells me residency = doing a specialization in a certain field, while intern = mandatory period of training for all med school graduates, correct?
i currently live in norway (a non-eu country), although im polish and ive studied in poland. the current situation for all med school graduees from outside of eu/north america/australia (possibly more countries/regions) who wish to specialize in norway is as follows:
1.) pass a norwegian language test. afaik, there are 2 official tests, one of them is known as "bergens" test.
2.) pass the so-called "fagprove". when i took this test (i had to take it, as i graduated before poland became an eu member), it consisted of about 80 multiple choice questions (total amount) from internal med., surg., psych., gyn-obs., ped. + a few more "non-medical" subjects. the test was rather easy, and in comparison to usmle or similar, its a piece of cake. i believe 65 % correct answers = pass.
3.) courses in certain "national" subjects are required - sorry, again not sure of the english terms - basically it involves the interaction of psychiatry and law. the courses are compulsory, thyre conducted at the university of oslo, and there are exams - again, theyre very easy to pass.
4.) even if you have gone through intern (i use this term to denote the obligatory training that med school graduates must complete before being able to specialize in a chosen field - again, im not quite familiar with the uk/us terms), youll have to repeat that in norway. its comprized of either 6 mts. internal + 6 mts. surgery + 6 mts. gp, or 4 mts. internal + 4 mts. surgery + 4 mts. psych. + 6 mts. gp.
5.) after completing your intern, you can apply to whatever youd like - be it internal med., surgery, gyn-obs etc. the best (only?) way is by searching through vacant positions
here. in the top left search box, mark "assistentlege" (=assistent doctor = an md in the process of specializing. as a side note, "overlege" = an md with a specialty), in the search box just beneath choose the specialty you wish to search for vacant positions. eventhough you dont know the language, it should give you an idea of the chances you have in your preferred spec.
6.) when applying, you simply send in an "official" application that can be found
here (=Søknadsblankett for legestillinger) + a motivation letter.
7.) when applying, no exam results etc. are required. the norwegian system is rather, heh, shall we say socialist, as in: "everybody has equal rights". basically it equates to no exams
whatsoever.
if you have any further questions, fire away.
EDIT:
aha, forgot to mention about $.
as an intern, youll pull 420000 norwegian kroner a year (1$ = appx. 6 kroner). remember taxes will be appx. 40 % or so. afair, it equated to appx. 22000 nok. a month after taxes. the wages of a resident are only slightly higher, something around 500000+. it all depends on the number of duties. as a resident, depending on the hospital youre working at, youll have anything between 2 - 8 duties/month ("compulsory"). any additional duties you take (number of these again depends on the hospital/ward youre working at), are very well paid - appx. 4000 nok (appx. 700$) after taxes.
