[bivins1]

Lady jane,

It might interest you to know that internship is 1000 hours in Alberta and you can start your internship after passing the evalauting exams. However, it's not very easy to get internship places if you have not passed both part of the qualifying exams. It's even worse in Ontario cos even after passing both parts of the qualifying exams and if you did not go through their CPS programme, you will have to do 32 weeks of studentship or longer depending on the discretion of your preceptor and and 16 weeks of internship whereas their own students (canadian trained students ) do just 16 weeks of internship. I really find that discriminatory. I don't understand why candidates who pass the same entry exams should be made to start their jobs with differing conditions.

The irony is that the pharmacies are only interested in you after you pass both exams. They will never give you the opportunity to do internship with them because the y give all kinds of excuses like you dont have canadian experience, you will not be covered by insurance and that that jazz. Even when they give you a job, they will be looking to send you a remote location where their own students will not go.

It's not easy anywhere but when everything is put together, I think the canadian pharmacist is better trained and their qualification process is more tedious compared to the american but the American pharmacist earn more than the canadian pharmacist. If you looked at my first posting on this issue, you notice3d that I mentioned that more than 50% of canadian trained pharmacist run to America because of better pay.

That apart, the OSCE examination is the most subjective exams in the whole world and is very Canadain.One would have expected that scaling that exam will put you at a very big salary scale but believe me you cant compare yourself to an american pharmacist. They are more well off than their Canadian counterparts. I don't mean to discourage anybody but just to make sure you get your facts correctly.

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