Canadian Doctors: Have You Got What It Takes?

Manufacturing Doctors

Can Canada's medical schools really cure our physician shortage?

By CHRISTINA SPENCER

By 8 a.m. on May 15, 2007, Ryerson engineering grad Shawn Mondoux was at the computer, waiting to find out if he'd made it into med school.

"I needed to bring the cat to the vet that morning, but I was up early and kept refreshing my Hotmail," the 24-year-old Elliot Lake, Ont., native recalls. Finally, good news: The University of Ottawa had accepted him.

At about the same time, Sandra Naaman, completing her doctorate in clinical psychology, sat anxiously in her office.

"I was checking my e-mail at a very compulsive rate every five or 10 minutes," she says. When her med school acceptance arrived, "I bawled, I just cried -- then I called my mom."

Both students have now finished their first year of medical school. Along with more than 2,500 other would-be doctors, they face three more years to obtain an MD degree. But that's just the start: Once they've got it, they must pursue residency programs that last from two to seven years. Some will take additional training. Many will rack up gargantuan debts.