Canadian students interested in studying medicine abroad at UMHS should meet Geneviève Gagne, Senior Associate Director of Canadian Admissions and Operations. Geneviève is available to answer all your questions about applying to UMHS. She has upcoming Canada Information Sessions in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa.
For our first installment of the UMHS Staff Interview, a new series focusing on university staff members, the UMHS Endeavour spoke with Geneviève about her background, her journey in medical education, and her experience with Canadian and international Caribbean medical schools, specifically UMHS.
Geneviève has extensive knowledge of the residency match process, including how it pertains to Canadian students who have studied abroad. We recently caught up with Geneviève to chat about numerous things of interest to Canadians considering UMHS.
UMHS Endeavour: You worked for the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) and for four years for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Tell us about your background about your journey into the world of Canadian medical education.
Geneviève Gagne: When I finished my bachelor degree in Communications, I did not really know what I wanted to do until I started working at the Faculty of Medicine at Ottawa University. From the moment I started working in Canadian medical education, I was really fascinated and interested. The more I furthered my knowledge, I attended conferences and built a network in this field, the more I wanted to continue my journey in this field. I had an opportunity to join the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) and this journey helped me better understand the steps to obtaining residency in Canada and the different eligibility criteria set by each province. Working at CaRMS gave me the opportunity to encounter Canadian medical graduates, IMGs (International Medical Graduates) and CSAs (Canadian Studying Abroad), and learn from them through their different experiences in the Canadian medical education system. Not only does it take time and patience to go through the match, but those students are under tremendous pressure, considering the extreme competitiveness of it. As a Faculty Relations Agent, I worked with the 17 faculty of medicine undergraduate and postgraduate offices, including residency programs that helped me better put together all the pieces of the puzzle to the residency match.
How is the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) different from the U.S. Match?
Despite the fact that the CaRMS match is smaller than the U.S. Match, I feel that it is an easier process for students. In the USA, you have to send your documents via ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service for Applicants) while the match is done by NRMP, but CaRMS handles both roles in Canada. On the other side, the match in Canada is very competitive as there are fewer positions for IMGs compared to the USA.
What is one of the best things about working with Canadian students studying medicine abroad?
Now working with the CSAs at UMHS gives me the chance to learn more about the U.S. medical education system and medical schools outside Canada at the same time as helping students that have a great potential as future medical doctor but did not have the chance to enter a medical school in Canada.
What are some of the unique challenges that Canadians studying medicine abroad currently face?
The main countries Canadians can do their residency is in Canada and the USA. As it is really competitive to come back in Canada as a CSA, students need to be realistic with their discipline of choice and also have a plan "B". Also, for Canadians trying to come back, they have to do very well on their licensure examinations. It's a lot of investment of time and effort but in the end it will be very rewarding for them. It is competitive to enter a Canadian medical school, it will be competitive to come back and obtain residency training in Canada.
What made you wish to join UMHS?
Even though UMHS is a fairly recent school, it is owned and managed by people who have been working in the Caribbean medical schools for more than 30 years. I felt I had a lot to learn by joining this great team of people who truly care about the success of their students. Despite the efforts of Canadian medical faculties to add seats and accept more medical students in Canada, a lot of students are still denied entry. More and more Canadians are now choosing to go abroad to study medicine and I now have a great opportunity to educate Canadian students and help them along their journey to studying medicine abroad.
You are from Quebec. Do Canadians need to be fluent in French if they want to practice medicine in Quebec?
Yes, they need to understand and speak French because they will have patients that will only speak French.
Tell us a bit about your personal life and your family. Are there any parallels to being a mother and working with students?
When you become a mother, the number one priority is the health, education and well-being of your kids. When I work with my Canadian students at UMHS, I make sure they are well taken care of and they feel secure about the decisions they are or will be making. Future students at Caribbean medical schools are human beings that need to feel they are a person and not a number. If at UMHS we all work together to ensure their success, then at the end of the day our goal will be reached. At the end of their journey, they will be the caregiver in the next years to come and for future generations to my children and maybe grandchildren.
You're very involved with your students and you have visited St. Kitts recently. For Canadians considering studying at UMHS, tell us a few things that might surprise people about the campus and life in St. Kitts.
Having worked in Canadian medical education for 10 years, I felt confident that UMHS was a truly amazing school that was serious about the success of their students. UMHS has put all the necessary efforts to give their students the best chance to succeed by keeping their classes small and maintaining a high standard quality of education. UMHS is a small community of people, including the students, all of whom care and are there to help out each other.
Contact Geneviève Gagne or Meet Her at Upcoming UMHS Info Sessions
E-mail Geneviève Gagne at ggagne@umhs-sk.net or telephone her at 819-918-9736. For more information on UMHS for Canadian students, visit https://www.umhs-sk.org/index.php/admissions/for-canadian-students.html
To register for upcoming UMHS Canada Information Sessions in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa, visit http://www.umhs-sk.org/index.php/contact-us/info-sessions.html
(Top Photo) Geneviève Gagne. Photo: UMHS
About UMHS:
Built in the tradition of the best US universities, the University of Medicine and Health Sciencesfocuses on individual student attention, maintaining small class sizes and recruiting high-quality faculty. We call this unique approach, “personalized medical education,” and it’s what has led to our unprecedented 96% student retention rate, and outstanding residency placements across the US and Canada. UMHS is challenging everything you thought you knew about Caribbean medical schools.
Scott is Director of Digital Content & Alumni Communications Liaison at UMHS and editor of the UMHS Endeavour blog. When he's not writing about UMHS students, faculty, events, public health, alumni and UMHS research, he writes and edits Broadway theater reviews for a website he publishes in New York City, StageZine.com.
