Medical students are interested in pursuing development of a common first year of postgraduate medical training, but only if it does not add to the overall training time required.
That message emerged clearly during the recent annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) in Kingston, Ont., where participants eventually decided to develop a position paper. They also committed to further discussions on a series of standards that any common PGY-1 year will be required to meet.
The topic was introduced by Dr. Danielle Martin, immediate past president of the CFMS, who noted that the common year is an “extremely complicated” issue that has become a hot topic across the country. At the CMA's annual meeting in August, for instance, several resolutions were passed that gave support in principle to a common PGY-1 year and to more flexibility in residency training.
Martin said feedback from students indicates support for the notion, but “the instant it lengthens our training by even 24 hours, it's not on. And the instant it become coercive, it's not on.”
She said introduction of the common year may imply some form of limited licensure after its completion. Summarizing the PGY-1 debate, she warned that students “have to be very vigilant.”
Following the discussions, delegates developed an initial set of 10 principles that a common PGY-1 year will have to conform with to be acceptable to students. These included no increase in the total training time and assurance that the training will not be a repeat of the clinical clerkship. — Pat Rich, CMAJ