Gino4,
I am a second year family medicine resident in the Medical Officer Training Program for the CF. As such, I can answer some of your questions, but not all.
1. Application Process. You need to be accepted to medical school before applying to become an MO in the CF. Apparently, in the "good old days," people could be virtually guaranteed seats in medical school by going through the military, but my understanding is that resulted in sub-par physicians. I'm not sure how long ago that system was in place. When I applied, you had to be in at least 2nd year medicine. Since then, they have pushed the entry eligibility earlier to 1st year medicine. You could be subsidized for your entire medical school career (of course, your return of service agreement would be extended accordingly).
Actually, I think there are still 1 or 2 schools that have a few "reserved" seats for MMTP applicants (people already in the CF who want to retrain as physicians), but I don't really know how this works.
2. Civilian Med vs. Military Med. I have recently asked questions such as yours, and have received detailed responses from posters such as: SFB, Vincent Escanlar, and Frostnipped Elf. Please see my post in this forum, with the title "seeking information for incoming medical officers." Essentially, a family doctor in the military performs what could largely be called "healthy soldier care" in one of the numerous base clinics. Obviously, the population is more male than female (not sure of the exact proportion here, I'm guessing 75 - 80 % male?), and the age range is mostly 18 - mid 50's. Appointment times are in the neighbourhood of 30 minutes (as opposed to 10 or 15 minutes in private civvy practice). I noticed the last time I was in (as a patient) that they were using an EMR (Purkinje Dossier), but I'm not sure whether this is base specific or universal or what.
Because of the somewhat skewed population you see during peacetime, you are responsible for "volunteering" in the ER for the equivalent of 1 day per week. This enables you to see more women and children patients, and helps maintain acute care skills. I am told that many CF physicians moonlight 1-2 nights in the ER (or possibly other settings) as well. Whether this is just to earn more cash, or because they feel they need the experience, I do not know.
And then there are deployments. Typical overseas deployments are ~ 6 months, but this can vary. And pre-deployment training / prep can last for months before that. In theory, you are supposed to be back on Canadian soil for 365 days following a deployment (I honestly don't know how rigorously this standard is applied).
3. I would be surprised if enrollment in an Australian medical school (whether or not you are a Canadian citizen, landed immigrant, or not) would be acceptable to the CF. As medical students / residents in the CF, we are basically banned from even doing overseas electives. Even training / electives outside of the radius (something like 35 km? probably varies with the site) of your medical school is only permitted in certain circumstances (e.g. mandatory rural training, etc).
Again, let me be clear that while I am sure about number 1, some of the information for number 2 was gleaned from second-hand (but reliable) sources. Number 3 is speculation based on regulations I know I must follow (extrapolation).
Mods / people who know more than myself, please feel free to correct / supplement my responses as you see fit.
Gino4, if you have any other questions that you think I might be able to answer (given my situation), feel free to PM me and I will do my best.
Good luck,
resolute
