Any North America MD Graduate Head Over To Australia For Residency?

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EngrGuy

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Hey there,

Just curious if anybody has or know who has done their med school in north america then went over to Australia to do their residency. I realize an internship will have do be done before doing a residency there, and I realize internships as IMGs are 99.9% impossible to get. I was just wondering if anybody has had experience with doing this or at least trying to do so.

Thanks!

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Hey,

Where it's been discussed rather extensively already:
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/us-doctor-moving-to-australia.810914/.
With the OP (US MD who moved to Australia) having direct experience (and is really friendly too)
(well, that's if you haven't flipped through that thread yet)

Some of the main points they go into details there include:
- Australian v.s. North American training (they're structured really differently, it's comparing apples to oranges)
-- to note that Australia training is much longer in years (requires patience), however it balances out because the day-to-day hours are better (= better lifestyle)
- whether it's better to finish your residency in your home country first v.s. doing residency in Australia.
- VISA and PR
- the pros and cons to each system
- the maldistribution of doctors in Australia (which actually afflicts many Western countries for logical reasons)
-- chronic shortage of rural and remote doctors
-- acute oversupply of metropolitan doctors
- the multiple different pathways to either residency in Australia or positions as fully qualified doctors.
- you likely have to sit board exams (or the AMC - written & OSCE style exams)

If you're strategic, it's not impossible to get an internship (but challenging and difficult yes, as they'll make you jump through many hoops. And there's a massive bottleneck situation right now, with too many med students graduating and not enough internships for them, very roughly speaking). Still, I've met IMGs with degrees from all over in various residency positions, but they're rarely hired by the large public hospitals in the cities.

Also, don't underestimate either the struggle to adapt to not just internship, but a different country's healthcare system. While there's similarities between Western nations, practitioners will have different expectations of trainees and often very particular approaches. You also have to be willing to intern in different branches of medicine - the Australian internship requires 10 weeks of surgery, 10 weeks of medicine and 8 weeks of emergency medicine.

To clarify however, I'm not someone in the category of "North American grad who migrated to Australia for residency and/or internship." They're a very rare breed in these parts... I don't think I've ever met any new grads from North America who've migrated to Australia for internship. But would be interesting to see if anyone comes out of the woodwork on SDN/the internet.
 
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