Grant: Project Grant

Post Graduate Medical Education (PGME) refers to the training medical students complete after graduating from medical school. PGME includes residency programs (2-5 years training required for licensure and specialty certification) and fellowship programs (additional years of clinical or research training). The number of PGME trainees and the type of training they receive (specialty versus family medicine) directly affect the size and composition of Canada's physician workforce. Visa trainees are individuals who are neither Canadian citizens nor permanent residents, who are funded, often by a foreign government, to complete PGME training in Canada and return to their home country to practice. Visa trainees make up a growing number of PGME trainees, and many opt to stay in Canada rather than return to their home country as expected. This project will examine how many visa and fellowship trainees work in Canada following their training. We will also study why the size and number of visa training and fellowship programs vary from province to province by looking at these programs in three provinces (Ontario, BC and Nova Scotia). The study will describe the factors that influence the approach to these programs in these provinces. The overarching goal of the project is to understand how fellowship programs and visa trainees affect the composition of the physician workforce in Canada.