Foreign-trained family doctors graduate from N.B. licensing program
10 doctors now ready to work around the province after completing new assesment program
The wait for a family doctor may soon come to an end for many New Brunswickers as 10 new physicians join the health-care system.
The internationally trained doctors participated in a competitive process, undergoing 12 weeks of supervised clinical field assessment, and three weeks of orientation, to become licensed to practise in the province, the government said.
They are the first to graduate from the Practice Ready Assessment program, created by the Department of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick.
They will be able to take on between 10,000 and 15,000 patients across many communities, according to a news release from the premier's office, including Moncton, Miramichi, Bathurst, Campbellton and Woodstock.
"Successful candidates sign a three-year return-of-service agreement" with the Department of Health, the release said.
Dr. Arshia Haqani, who is from Iran, will be seeing patients in Moncton. She said it was challenging to go through the qualifying process.
"But it was rewarding at the end. I'm so happy where I'm standing right now, and I'm so fortunate."
Haqani has already established a clinic with another physician and her practice will also include some hospital shifts, she said. She already has about 360 patients and expects to have more than 2,000.
Previously, she worked as a family doctor in Iran for three years, but heard there was a need in Canada.
"They were in need of family physicians the most in Canada ... I can help them because at the end of the day, everything aside, my goal, the reason I became a doctor, was to help people," she said.
More than 100 foreign-trained doctors applied for the licensing program in October 2023, but only 10 were chosen for the first batch of assessments, Dr. Nicole LeBlanc, deputy registrar for the New Brunswick College of Physicians and Surgeons, said in a previous interview.
LeBlanc said the number was limited by the number of assessors and how many of them could be trained in time to assess the first group of doctors.
The program now has about 30 assessors, which should be enough for the second group that begins clinical assessments this fall.
Dr. Wael Zohdy, who will be working in Campbellton, was a general physician in Egypt for 20 years before moving to Canada in 2010.
He said he went back to school to get a masters degree and began working as a project manager in the health-care system.
However, he said patient care is something that has always been emotional for him, so he decided to apply for New Brunswick's assessment program in 2023.
"I'm not talking about the money, or the income, this is not the issue. Patient care is something else, you know, I have been trained as a physician, and I would like to to keep working as a physician and have patient care," he said.
Zohdy said the licensing process was stressful but also very important.
"Imagine yourself as in an exam for 12 weeks," he said.
"We were not assessed by one assessor. I was assessed by six assessors — two primary assessors and four secondary assessors — and this is a good thing because it's guaranteed the fairness of the process."
Zohdy said it's a challenge for anyone to leave a job and go through such a rigorous process, but he wants to encourage international medical graduates to consider the Practice Ready Assessment program.
"It's a little bit of gambling ... It is a risky process, you know, but does it work?
"Yes, it works," he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
