What happens after residency?

[ss80]

I understand that after medical school, you must match into a residency program. My question is, what happens once you are done your residency program? Do you then have to look for open positions and apply? Is it possible to stay on at the hospital you did your residency?

[UWOMED2005]

Depends on the specialty, how many specialists in your area are at that particular hospital, whether you can get OR time (if you're a surgeon) and if you want to do a fellowship to further subspecialize.

If you look in the CMAJ, the most frequently requested specialty is family medicine. In fact, in some of the super-specialized areas of medicine you may have problems finding work in your particular field in your first choice of center. Rumour is that most of the cardiac surgery residency grads couldn't find work in Canada last year, and one of my classmates knows a gastroenterologist who graduated from his residency program only to find the center he wanted didn't need any more gastroenterologists. Of course, in medicine, there's almost always SOMEWHERE that will need your services.

[Ian Wong]

Floating to the top...

Ian