What They Do
Understanding and Caring
Medical Officers are commissioned members of the Canadian Forces Medical Service. As a Medical Officer, your primary duty will be to practise medicine in the military milieu. In the Canadian Forces, both at home in Canada and overseas when deployed on operations, medical practice focuses on health protection and education, occupational health and safety, primary care, and environmental medicine, including the physiological challenges of high altitude and deep-sea diving.
Like other commissioned and senior non-commissioned members of the Canadian Forces, Medical Officers have a special responsibility: providing leadership. Leadership roles for Medical Officers vary according to interest, assignment and rank, but there is one constant: the Medical Officer leads the clinical team. With the right training, and a strong interest in tactics, administration and management, Medical Officers may also find opportunities to command sections, companies and units.
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Qualification Requirements
Personal Characteristics
The Canadian Forces requires a special kind of professional: a physically fit individual who is socially adaptable and ready for the unusual and the unexpected. At the same time, he or she must be professionally versatile and capable of leadership in a variety of environments, both in Canada and overseas.
Formal Qualifications
You must meet Canadian Forces medical standards, and successfully complete a selection process that includes interviews and a wide range of examinations, including tests of physical fitness.
If you are not qualified for Direct Entry, you must be qualified for the Medical Officer Training Plan.
If you are a physician holding an unrestricted licence to practise family medicine in a Canadian province or territory, you are eligible for direct entry as a Medical Officer with the following benefits:
- An entry pay of $134,182.
- A salary comparable to the after-expenses income of a civilian practitioner. For each complete year of experience as a civilian family physician, the individual moves up one pay level, to a maximum of seven levels ($184,138).
- Participation in the Canadian Forces pension plan
- 20 working days of vacation per year, increasing to 25 working days in the fifth year of service
- Free medical and dental care
- Maternity and parental leave in accordance with government-wide provisions
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No overhead:
- Office space and support services are provided
- Licensing fees are paid
- Costs of professional development and training are covered
- Full reimbursement of tuition fees and educational expenses, including books, instruments and supplies, student union fees and registration costs
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An annual salary ranging from $44K to $54K, with generous benefits, including:
- Participation in the Canadian Forces pension plan
- 20 working days of vacation time per year, increasing to 25 working days in the fifth year of service
- Free medical and dental care
- Maternity and parental leave in accordance with government-wide provisions
- MOTP candidates receive full pay and allowances throughout residency
- Upon completing a few years as an experienced Medical Officer, you would then be eligible for further training in public health, occupational medicine, aerospace or tropical medicine, epidemiology or health care administration at any of the accredited Medical school throughout Canada.
On successful completion of your residency in family medicine, you will be required to serve for four years in the Canadian Forces as a Medical Officer. For information, contact a Medical Officer Recruiter: alain.gagnon2@forces.gc.ca
Career Development
About 20 percent of your professional life as a Medical Officer will be spent at civilian facilities - and for specialists it is 100% of your professional time - where you will maintain and enhance your skills, especially in acute care and emergency medicine. This is done to ensure that you are always prepared for the challenges of military medicine.
The Canadian Forces actively supports Medical Officers’ efforts to develop and maintain clinical skills in all aspects of medicine. To that end, you will be given many opportunities for subsidized training on an annual basis — for example, attendance at medical conferences.
Initial Employment
You can expect to spend your first four years of service (after training) in one location, and to be promoted in accordance with your performance and your standing in comparison with your peers, gradually progressing to positions of increased responsibility and authority. You may be selected for specialized training prior to service completion. When your obligatory service is completed, you may choose to be honourably released; however, if you decide to pursue a medical career in the Canadian Forces, you will be eligible for training as a specialist in a variety of fields.
Specialty Training
The Canadian Forces subsidizes Medical Officers who wish to specialize in surgery, orthopaedic surgery, anaesthesiology, internal medicine, psychiatry and radiology. You will be able to apply for post-graduate education in competition with your peers.
All postgraduate education taken at public expense incurs further obligatory service, at the rate of two years of service for each year of sponsored education, to a maximum of five years for a single qualification. That is to say, support from the Canadian Forces for your training as a specialist in internal medicine, surgery, anaesthesiology, psychiatry or radiology brings an obligation to serve for five years on top of your original obligatory service.
Working Environment
Wherever other CF members are sent, Medical Officers may also be sent, so you face a myriad of potential working conditions. Most of your time will be spent in clinical practice in garrison or on a base or wing, but you will also be expected to deploy. When serving overseas on operations, you will work and live in the same conditions as the other members of your unit, which can range from the semi-industrial setting of an airfield to the confines of a warship or the challenges of a tented camp in a developing country.
Although your daily work in garrison or on a base or wing will require little physical effort, you will be expected to meet the CF minimum standard for physical fitness. Whatever your assignment, you will have every opportunity to keep fit and participate in both team sports and individual activities.
Leadership is a key component in the life of an officer in the CF. Both at home and while deployed, Medical Officers can take on key leadership roles and, consequently, face significant leadership challenges. Physicians who embrace the principles of leadership and develop their leadership skills meet such challenges successfully.
Appropriate training, environmental clothing and equipment are provided, and Medical Officers’ health, safety and morale are closely monitered.
Basic Officer Training Course
The Initial Assessment Period (IAP - 8 weeks) and Basic Officer Training Period (BOTP - 6 weeks) are conducted at the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. During IAP-BOTP, you will learn the principles of leadership, regulations and customs of the service, and first aid. You will also learn safe handling of personal weapons, a requirement of Medical Officers under the Geneva Conventions so they are prepared to assist in defence of their patients. IAP-BOTP includes a rigorous program of sports and fitness training, and may be followed by second-language training.
Basic Medical Officer Course
Upon successful completion of IAP-BOTP, you will go to the Canadian Forces Medical Services School at CFB Borden, Ontario, for the Basic Medical Officer Course (BMOC). During BMOC, you will be introduced to the organizational structure and history of the Canadian Forces Medical Service and the unique circumstances of military medicine. If you are posted to a Field Ambulance or other Army unit, you will also receive environmental training, an operational requirement that includes field exercises that may take place anywhere in the world.
