Trained in the US, practise in Ireland?

bishops love scifi

Hi all,

Long story short: I'm an American thinking of moving to Ireland. A couple of years ago, I met an Irish guy. I am a first year student at a med school in the US, and he still has a couple of years left in his PhD here.

He has his heart set on moving back. If things continue to go well, I am willing to move with him, but I have no idea how my qualifications will be regarded there. I am here in the hope that some of you are more familiar with the system than I am. I have a heap of questions, and would greatly appreciate any help/knowledge you might have.

1. How hard is it to get qualified to work in Ireland with US qualifications?
2. Could somebody please outline the procedure for getting qualified? (Maybe that's too big a request, I know...)
3. Whose website should I be looking at? It looks like the IMO, Medical Council, and Dept of Health all kind of fight it out. Is the Medical Council the "best" one for me? He thinks the Dept of Health is more important, but medicine isn't his area.
4. Does it make a difference whether I want to work in a hospital versus be a GP/PCP? (Is this the difference between "Specialist Register" and "General Register"?)
5. Does it make a difference which field I specialize in?
6. If I pass US Boards, will I still have to pass PRES? Are they similar, does anyone know?
7. The Medical Council's website (link) mentions an internship requirement of one year OR three years of training. My MD is three years of training. Does this mean I could skip the internship? If I have to do an internship, does it have to be in Ireland or could it be in the US?

Thank you very much in advance. Go raibh mile! (He taught me that one )

PS when the Med Council say they recognize American Boards, do they mean all the way to Step 3, i.e. including three years' internships? Or are Step 1 and Step 2 enough?

Ihaveanopinion

1. How hard is it to get qualified to work in Ireland with US qualifications?
   
   Firstly, you need to be eligible for a Visa. Not always as straightforward as it seems.
   
2. Could somebody please outline the procedure for getting qualified? (Maybe that's too big a request, I know...)
3. Whose website should I be looking at? It looks like the IMO, Medical Council, and Dept of Health all kind of fight it out. Is the Medical Council the "best" one for me? He thinks the Dept of Health is more important, but medicine isn't his area.
   
   You need to get a medical license first. This comes from the Irish Medical Council. You may need to do equivalency exams (PRES) administered by the Medical Council. As far as I know, there is no automatic recognition of US qualifications (they dont recognise ours without doing the USMLEs)
   
   Then, if you have done your post graduate training in the US, ie done your boards +/- fellowship, you have to apply to the relevant post graduate training body to gain recognition of those. For example, if you are an Orthopaedic surgeon, you have to apply to that committee in RCSI, if you are a physician you have to apply to the relevant committee in RCPI - and so on. They assess your training and see if you can get on the specialist registrar. They don't always grant it.
   
   
4. Does it make a difference whether I want to work in a hospital versus be a GP/PCP? (Is this the difference between "Specialist Register" and "General Register"?)
   
   If you want to practice as a Consultant (Attending) physician/surgeon or indeed, a GP - you have to be on the relevant Specialist Register. If you dont have specialist qualifications or have not completed your training and are not on a training programme, you go on the General Register
   
5. Does it make a difference which field I specialize in?
   
   Yes
   
6. If I pass US Boards, will I still have to pass PRES? Are they similar, does anyone know?
   
   I believe you will have to do them.
   
   
7. The Medical Council's website (link) mentions an internship requirement of one year OR three years of training. My MD is three years of training. Does this mean I could skip the internship? If I have to do an internship, does it have to be in Ireland or could it be in the US?
   
   If you have completed your training, you might not have to do one. Medical Council will be able to inform you on this.
   
   

Thank you very much in advance. Go raibh mile! (He taught me that one )

PS when the Med Council say they recognize American Boards, do they mean all the way to Step 3, i.e. including three years' internships? Or are Step 1 and Step 2 enough?[/QUOTE]

sam34

off topic posts deleted. Please stick to the thread topic.

drzhivago

bishops love scifi wrote: »

Hi all,

Long story short: I'm an American thinking of moving to Ireland. A couple of years ago, I met an Irish guy. I am a first year student at a med school in the US, and he still has a couple of years left in his PhD here.

He has his heart set on moving back. If things continue to go well, I am willing to move with him, but I have no idea how my qualifications will be regarded there. I am here in the hope that some of you are more familiar with the system than I am. I have a heap of questions, and would greatly appreciate any help/knowledge you might have.

1. How hard is it to get qualified to work in Ireland with US qualifications?
2. Could somebody please outline the procedure for getting qualified? (Maybe that's too big a request, I know...)
3. Whose website should I be looking at? It looks like the IMO, Medical Council, and Dept of Health all kind of fight it out. Is the Medical Council the "best" one for me? He thinks the Dept of Health is more important, but medicine isn't his area.
4. Does it make a difference whether I want to work in a hospital versus be a GP/PCP? (Is this the difference between "Specialist Register" and "General Register"?)
5. Does it make a difference which field I specialize in?
6. If I pass US Boards, will I still have to pass PRES? Are they similar, does anyone know?
7. The Medical Council's website (link) mentions an internship requirement of one year OR three years of training. My MD is three years of training. Does this mean I could skip the internship? If I have to do an internship, does it have to be in Ireland or could it be in the US?

Thank you very much in advance. Go raibh mile! (He taught me that one )

PS when the Med Council say they recognize American Boards, do they mean all the way to Step 3, i.e. including three years' internships? Or are Step 1 and Step 2 enough?

I think you are confusing a few issues here]

Medical Council here = State Medical Board in US = Medical Licence

IMO = AMA

Department of Health = DHHS in USA

By US Boards do you mean your student exams i.e. USMLE -- My understanding is they have no specific status here

If you mean Board Certified by a Specialty Body such as American Board Emergency medicine then yes that has some status but does not guarantee specialist recognition here as the duration of specialist training in US is not equivalent to the minimum EU standard for recognition of training as specialist, if you have done a 2 year Fellowship post residency it is more likely this will be classified as equivalent even if it is still a little shorter

The process at that point begins with medical council for registration, they then pass your request for specialist recognition to the relevant body in case of Emergency Medicine would be Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Committee on training in Emergency Medicine

They then examine CV, qualifications, recommendation letters and decide whether you have fulfilled requirement for specialist registration or General registration which will require further period of training to get on specialist register


First step for you should be to go to medical council website they have a flowchart to indicate what you need to do based on where you qualified, how long your training, and this then indicates what type of registration you are eligible to apply for

bishops love scifi

Thanks for all the help.