How to Be a Medical Officer

[tomahawk6]

Thanks. The US does recruit PA's and I thought I read that the CF does the same. I stand corrected.

 

[CombatDoc]

Thanks. The US does recruit PA's and I thought I read that the CF does the same. I stand corrected.

The US model for PA production is different than the Cdn model. Although there is the potential to recruit PA graduates from civilian programs in Canada, this has not yet occurred. Furthermore, CAF PAs are oriented towards primary care, whereas many US PAs work in hospital sub specialist areas (eg orthopedics, neuro, etc).

 

[hailPBJ71]

Thank you all for your help and all the information.  I really appreciate this.

 

[Blackadder1916]

I came across this interesting programme while researching something else.  It seems that the CAF had a few funded FM residency slots available for medical students who failed to match for residency.  I won't comment on the unusual circumstance of not matching or the individuals who fail to do so.

https://www.cfms.org/what-we-do/education/motp.html

Medical Officer Training Program for Unmatched Students -MOTP Surge 2018

The CFMS in collaboration with the Canadian Armed Forces has worked to create supernumerary Family Medicine positions through the Medical Officer Training Program (MOTP). This initiative is called MOTP Surge 2018. If you are interested in exploring the option of becoming a Medical Officer and starting residency in July, please follow the steps below.

In order to apply you must:
•be a Canadian Citizen; and
•be between 17 and 47 years old.

Unmatched Medical Students

Regardless of previous interest in the military, any medical student who finds out they are unmatched after the second match iteration on April 11 is encouraged to:

1. Send an email with “MOTP Surge 2018” in the subject to: [email protected]. This will get them put on an emailing list through which we will communicate any and all updates regarding the military application process and/or PGME application process.

Since a number of the individuals who have sought advice here are IMGs, this programme does not appear to apply to that situation.  This from the uOttawa, one of the schools that has a couple of the slots.

https://med.uottawa.ca/postgraduate/news/uottawa-pgme-dnd-sponsored-training-2018-only

The University of Ottawa and the Department of National Defence have launched a collaborative effort to offer up to two post-second-iteration CaRMS, postgraduate training positions in Family Medicine for Canadian Armed Forces Medical Officers. This is a joint application process and, as such, your residency application will be viewed by representatives of both the Department of National Defence and the University of Ottawa.

Each applicant must be either:

i) a current student in a Canadian medical school with an expected graduation date of June 1, 2018 or earlier, or be a past graduate of a Canadian medical school.

ii) a previous year Canadian medical school graduate who has not undertaken any postgraduate medical education.

Additionally, only those applicants who have also concurrently applied to the Canadian Armed Forces will be considered.

It is important to note that your training position within the University of Ottawa is contingent upon ongoing sponsorship by the Department of National Defence