Title: It's all about the money...
Tags: medical, foreign education,
Blog Entry: I had great intentions to try to write a blog every week. Words are my 'thing' here on The Hill, and I have had very kind responses to my blogs and in private messages! But life got in the way of me having fun on The Hill, so I had to 'disappear' for a bit. My health is good, both of my hands are working well, but I had to be reminded AGAIN, that not all of my activities are somehow connected to my computer. Sigh! The details are boring but I'm going to try again. Today, I'm not going to tell you a "nursing" story, even though this is medically related. I may have mentioned to some here on The Hill that we now have a boarder ... a doctor from South America, who has been in very difficult circumstances since arriving in Canada just over five years ago. His wife was transferred to the oil sands in northern Alberta by her company in South America, so they came as a family, with two young children. Sadly, she met someone through her work that she liked better and who had much more money, and she left the family and filed for a divorce. It is very difficult for foreign medical professionals to receive accreditation in Canada, and even though he has two ophthalmology specialties, the best he has been able to do is work as a technician in an ophthalmology clinic, part time and at minimum wage. Any promises to sponsor him when he was hired were soon forgotten; he was just cheap foreign labor! It is disgusting... it's all about the money. When I worked at a surgical plastic surgeon's clinic, as a medical transcriber, I saw the same jealousy among doctors in that specialty. The doctor that I worked for had been in practice for many years and had his own surgical suite that was not associated with any hospital in our city. His specialty was cosmetic surgery, and when his son was about to graduate in the same field, with the specialty of reconstructive surgery, the plan was for him to join his father in practice. As I was privy to communications in the clinic, I had many occasions to read and respond (with instructions from the doctor who had no idea about computers), to emails arriving at our office. I had no idea how vicious doctors can be; they did all in their power to block the doctor's son from practicing in the same city as his father, because the name was recognizable. They didn't want any "new upstart", especially with his credentials and the perks from his father, to infringe on their "market"! As for our present situation, we have added to our family; we are now their 'Canadian' family. Encouraging, instructing, and cheering them on... it has been a huge delight for my husband and I.
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