Stress test: Medical residents worry about finding work
“We endure overwhelming pressures in residency. ... If you want to get a position in your specialty you have to be better than everyone else. Everyone is trying to distinguish themselves, doing research, doing sub- specialties while you are watching your debt climb. There are not many positions available at all in Montreal and you have to start looking at the beginning of your residency. Meanwhile, you don’t have time for a social life, to exercise, to do anything for your own mental health. Most students could probably meet the criteria for clinical depression. Everyone was shocked about the suicide because we didn’t notice anything different about her. In this field, we normalize the abnormal.”
Aris Hadjinicolaou, Resident in psychiatry at the MUHC
“I have been looking for a job for three years. I want to live in or near Montreal because my boyfriend has to be in this area, but it doesn’t seem like it will happen. The government didn’t plan properly to ensure there would be jobs for everyone who got into medical school. When you look at the spots available, there aren’t enough and some are very far or they don’t offer resources for a surgeon like OR time. Some hospitals told me they have a spot but they don’t have the resources to fill it. I never thought this would happen, I was a naive medical student. I started to realize there was a problem in the second year of my residency. Now I’m studying for board exams, still putting in long hours as a resident, still doing some 24- hour shifts and now I have this additional stress. It’s incredibly frustrating. Many of my colleagues are having the same problem. There is something very wrong with the system. The only possibility I have found so far is three hours away. It’s unbearable.” Marie ( Not her real name as she didn’t want to be identified), Nearing the end of a residency in a surgical specialty
“When I entered medicine, there were always jobs, doctors were always needed. But in the last two or three years, it has become more difficult to find jobs. There are positions in Quebec on paper, but when you call the hospital, it turns out there’s no OR time, no endoscopy time, so if you go there, you will lose your competencies as a surgeon. It seems one of the ways the government is cutting the health budget is by not hiring new doctors. On paper, there are 13 jobs for surgeons, but 20 residents are finishing general surgery this year. The government says there’s spots for everyone, but it’s not true. My husband is in cardiology, but we don’t know if we will find jobs together; we might have to split up. We have a daughter and I can’t imagine going to separate cities. It is irresponsible to train doctors but not have jobs for them.”
Émilie Desrosiers, Completed a residency at the Université Laval in general surgery, writes her final exam in June