Medical education

Canada

Most medical schools in Canada require at least three years of postsecondary education towards a bachelor's degree prior to admission although the majority of entrants hold at least a bachelor's degree, usually in the sciences. The most notable exception to this is at McGill University, where a subset of the entering class are accepted directly after completion of CEGEP.

Schools typically admit applicants based on their undergraduate record (GPA), personal statement, MCAT score, non-academic (extracurricular) score, and interview.

Medical school in Canada is usually four years in length although McMaster University and the University of Calgary offer accelerated programs which run three years in total. Students in the first two years cover basic sciences such as anatomy, physiology, immunology and pharmacology and are given preliminary clinical exposure. Education is delivered through traditional lectures and small group learning, including problem-based learning. Years 3 and 4 are known as the clinical years or the clerkship, in which students learn in a hospital-based setting through clinical rotations in such fields as Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Surgery and Pediatrics.

At the end of Year 4, students enter the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) and are matched to a speciality and location depending on their particular preferences. Students typically graduate with the title Doctor of Medicine (MD).

Postgraduate training, or residency, varies in length from two years (such as in Family Medicine) to six years (such as in General Surgery). Most residency programs last about five years.

To receive full certification, physicians they must be certified as a Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada (LMCC) by completing the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Exam (MCCQE) Part I at the end of Year 4 and the MCCQE Part II at the end of PGY-1. Furthermore, they must receive certification from an appropriate certifying body: The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) for family physicians and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) for specialists.

Finally, physicians must register with the appropriate regulating body to be eligible to practise in a particular province. For example, physicians wishing to practise in British Columbia must register with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC).