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by ticviking 1321 days ago
That seems an awful lot to me like the "medical guild" is preventing enough people from being able to enter this profession to meet demand, which otherwise would be met at prevailing wage. I never once thought of nursing school spots as competitive when I was a student, you needed good grades but class ranking wouldn't come into it.

I'm aware I'm not an expert here, and I'd love to understand what the actual barrier to training more nurses is.
2 comments
kennend3 1321 days ago
You called it.

I have family looking to become a doctor in Canada, a country desperate for doctors.

There is so much demand to get into the limited slots you can have a near-perfect score and still not get admitted.

Canada's solution to this problem? Introduce a new test (CASPER) to further limit those who can apply.

One of my daughters friends scored very well on the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) but failed CASPER (????).

These systems seemed "rigged" to artificially limit supply and drive up wages.

She's now looking to the US so in the end, does Canada win by sending its medical professionals elsewhere?

The unions are great, and had a place but now they work against the public's best interest by limiting supply to drive up wages. Cant be a nurse in Canada without joining the union.

Everyone knows Salary is driven by salary/demand. Limit the supply what happens the price?

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kennend3 1321 days ago
Thinking about this more.. here's a classic example:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/dr-paul...

An American doctor volunteers three months of FREE service and is denied a license?

Normally they would use "lacks Canadian experience" but in this case he was Canadian trained.

Not to worry, the licensing group found an excuse to deny his license.

Because of COVID he was seeing patients virtually or over the phone. They managed to dig up some obscure ruling that doctors need to see patients in person, so license denied.

And the general public, could they not have benefitted from 3 months of free service? This area is absolutely DESPERATE for a doctor, but the barriers to entry must be protected at all costs.

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