Ismelda Ramirez says she never expected to swap her white doctor’s coat for a McDonald’s uniform. Despite training as a family doctor in the Dominican Republic, she ended up working at the fast-food chain for eight months after she moved to Quebec in 2022.

She’s one of thousands of internationally trained physicians, or ITPs, living in Canada, the vast majority of whom are not working as doctors, according to advocacy groups.

Despite changes to the process aimed at increasing the number of internationally trained doctors working in Canada, ITPs still face significant hurdles including navigating a complex system, a lack of opportunities and requirements that force some to temporarily leave the country.

  • Nik282000@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    21 hours ago

    I work under several foreign trained engineers, the quality of their work is absolutely unacceptable and has cost ridiculous sums of money. Anyone who intends to work in Canada in a job which requires a degree or years of training should be examined with just as much scrutiny as Canadian students.

    Anecdote != evidence but god damnt, if you can’t find 1000 stories exactly like mine.

    • n2burns@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      21 hours ago

      I heard lots of stories from my friends who were students in engineering, and there were a lot of f’d up stories about Canadian trained PEs too. The pattern I noticed wasn’t where they were trained, but how much they were paid (you get what you pay for).

      Also just an anecdote!

      • Nik282000@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        20 hours ago

        None of is as dumb as all of us.

        I am definitely in a budget constrained environment.

    • Kaboom@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      18 hours ago

      I’m American, but when I deal with code from H1Bs, foreign trained workers, that quality is atrocious. Indian education is much oriented to rote memorization and not critical thinking like in most western countries. You can really see the effects in their work.