Changing the transition--the Canadian experience

Ms Banner suggested that her role after the previous two lively and controversial presentations was to calm everyone down and present an alternative that delegates might quietly contemplate. She introduced herself as the executive director of the Canadian resident matching service, an organization that sits in the middle of all the medical education organizations in Canada and which in a way acts as an archive to the kind of changes that have been going on for the last 5-7 years. Much of what the two previous speakers discussed are the reasons why Canada is where it is today, and why it has taken the steps that it did. This paper describes the context of the transition from student to practising doctor in Canada, the pressures for change in this pre-registration period, the impact change has had on medical education and continuing challenges.