Canada COVID-19 National Policy
Canadian Health System Overview
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Health System Outcomes
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Medical Graduates Per 100,000 Population (2019): 7.6
Nursing Graduates Per 100,000 Population (2019): 52.7
Percent Share of Foreign-Trained Doctors (2019): 24.4%
Percent Share of Foreign-Trained Nurses (2019): 8.4%
(Note: According to OECD, “Medical graduates are defined as students who have graduated from medical schools in a given year.”)
Source: OECD (2021), Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae3016b9-en.
“The total cost of medical education in Canada may exceed $100,000, if education-related and non-education related expenses are taken into consideration. See Costs and Funding: How much is tuition at a Canadian medical school? of the fees in Canadian Faculties of Medicine.
“According to AFMC Graduation Questionnaire 82.5% of Canadian medical graduates reported debt directly related to their medical education1.
“Canadian medical graduates reported an average debt of $84,172 for medical school expenses and $80,516 of non-education related debt2.
“Most learners accumulate debt while they are in medical school and pay it off over several years after they have completed their training and entered the workforce.
“Glossary
“Non-education related debt: Debt related to credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and loans for elective and residency interview expenses.
“medical school expenses: related to tuition, books, accommodation and other school-related expenses.
“References
“Association of American Medical Colleges 2018. Canadian Medical School Graduation Questionnaire – 2018 All Schools Summary Report, AAMC: Washington, DC, 46 p.
“Statistics Canada 2018/19. Undergraduate tuition fees for full-time Canadian students, by discipline, by province (Canada).AFMC Graduation Questionnaire (GQ)“
Source: “Q3c: What will it cost to become a doctor?” Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. Last accessed March 5, 2020.
“According to Statistics Canada, the average cost of medical school tuition in Ontario is $25,541 per year, almost twice as high as the Canadian average of $14,444.”
Source: “Medical students protest steadily rising tuition fees,” by Caroline Mercer, CMAJ News, September 12, 2018.
“In terms of educating and training health providers, provincial ministries of health work in tandem with provider organizations to set or alter the number of “seats” or entry positions in professional programmes in postsecondary institutions. Since education is exclusively within the jurisdiction of the provinces, provincial governments determine the funding for the postsecondary education of the health professions that is delivered by universities, colleges and technical institutions (Tzountzouris & Gilbert, 2009). The educational and training requirements vary by profession, including a diploma (e.g. dental assistant, medical radiation technologist, respiratory therapist), Bachelor’s degree (e.g. midwife, pharmacist, registered nurse), Master’s (e.g. audiologist, physiotherapist) and Professional Doctorate (chiropractor, dentist). For all occupations, there is a requirement for undertaking an internship or clinical practicum, sometimes accompanied by a national exam administered by the profession.
“There are 17 medical programmes offering a medical doctorate (MD) in Canadian universities. The programmes vary in length from 3 years (McMaster University and University of Calgary) to the more typical 4-year programme including the clinical practicum (CIHI, 2011). In 2018/2019 the average tuition for Canadian full-time students in medicine was $ 14,780 (€ 9,750), compared with $ 23,474 (€ 15,500) for dentistry and $ 10,746 (€ 7,100) for pharmacy (Statistics Canada, 2018c).* After graduating, medical students enter a residency programme in family practice or some specialization and complete their training – a minimum 2-year residency programme in the case of family practice and 4 or more years in other specialties in medical, surgical and laboratory medicine. As in most countries, the number of physician specialties has grown over time. As of 2019, there were 94 specialities (including “family medicine”, subspecialties and areas of focused competence (CMA, 2019)). There is also an increasing number of physician assistants (797 as of 2017 compared with 308 in 2013) who mostly work in Manitoba and Ontario, the two provinces that also offer university-based programmes for these physician assistants (CIHI, 2019c).”
“* The average exchange rate used for 2018/9 is C$ 1 = € 0.66.”
Source: Marchildon G.P., Allin S., Merkur S. Canada: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(3): i–194.
“While undergraduate education and the awarding of undergraduate medical degrees (the basic MD) is the purview of the 17 medical schools in Canada, the RCPSC is responsible for overseeing the graduate education and training of physicians. As such, the RCPSC accredits 17 residency programmes, all run by the university-based medical schools. Specialists are also certified by the RCPSC, which is recognized by all province medical licensing authorities except for Quebec where the Collège des médecins du Québec is the primary certifying body (Flegel, Hébert & MacDonald, 2008; Bates, Lovato & Buller-Taylor, 2008; CIHI, 2011).
“Educational requirements for nurses have increased dramatically over the last two decades, with a major shift from 2-year diploma programmes to 4-year bachelor degree programmes. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are RNs whose extra training and education entitles them to an “extended class” designation. Their scope of practice – which includes prescribing certain classes of prescription drug therapies and ordering some diagnostic tests – overlaps with that of GPs. More importantly, given the evidence of the declining comprehensiveness of the primary care offered by physicians since the late 1980s, the range of health services offered by NPs has been of interest to primary health care reform advocates and provincial ministries of health (Chan, 2002b; College of Nurses of Ontario, 2004; CIHI, 2011). In addition to their RN education and training, NPs must get additional training from accredited institutions that are offered in all 10 provinces. The length of these programmes, including the clinical practicum, vary from 1 year to slightly in excess of 2 years (CIHI, 2011).”
Source: Marchildon G.P., Allin S., Merkur S. Canada: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(3): i–194.
Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.
Page last updated Oct. 23, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.
