From Portugal

Accreditation, permit of residence, language, licensing, specialist training, et cetera.
Yaoi
Inlägg: 2
Blev medlem: 11 maj 2012, 02:05

From Portugal

Inlägg av Yaoi »

I am a 23 yo Portuguese medical student, and I will finish my degree in Medicine this June, after having studied for 6 years. I am looking forward to doing my residence programme in Sweden, and I would like to know which documents do I need to present for that.
Hugs!
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Nils
driver läkarstudent.se
Inlägg: 4717
Blev medlem: 22 apr 2008, 23:52

Re: Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av Nils »

Hello Yaoi!

Before you can apply for a medical residency, you first need to obtain a Swedish medical license.

There are two paths to getting a Swedish medical license: you either already have a medical license in a country which Sweden has a mutual recognition agreement with (such as every European Union country) or you go through the Swedish medical licensing process with "general service" followed by the licensing exam.

Since the Portuguese medical degree programs do not award medical licenses at graduation (to the best of my knowledge, please correct me if I am wrong), your path forward in Sweden would be the Swedish medical licensing process.

You could also obtain a Portuguese medical license and have it recognised here but for the sake of learning the language and getting familiar with the Swedish ways of working I would recommend going the Swedish route.

The Swedish medical licensing process starts with up to 2 years of paid internship, "AT" (acronym for "allmäntjänstgöring", translatable as "general service"). After completing the internship period you are allowed to take the licensing exam, "the AT test", which is considered by most people to be pretty easy. After getting your Swedish medical license you can start applying for residencies.

The AT periods are applied to specifically rather than through a national admission process. Essentially, it is a job application rather than an education application.

The AT period is usually 18 months long but there are also a number of AT blocks consisting of 21 months or more. There are also a few special AT blocks of even greater length, for those who wish to pursue research during their AT period.

The average time between graduation and the beginning of an AT period is 9 months and growing (it is commonly believed that the county councils have failed to keep up the pace with the growing number of medical students) and last year it took 17 months, on average, to get an AT position in Stockholm.

Interestingly enough, the average delay times for the 21-month blocks are more than 3 months less than those for the 18-month blocks... meaning that if you are prepared to do a 21-month block, you are likely to finish before someone who is only prepared to do 18-month blocks.

The more peripheral areas (especially the north, the midwest and the southeast) also have significantly lower average times, however, and their payment is usually also better (the starting salary could be up to 30.000 SEK before taxes, rather than the 25.000 SEK which you can expect in highly competitive areas like Stockholm and Scania / Skåne).

Of course, having a great CV or personal connections would also affect how quickly and easily you get into an internship in a more competitive area. Many Swedish medical graduates work as "underdoctors" for many months in order to gain connections and improve their CV for the application to an internship area they strongly prefer.

Swedish language skills are not formally required for EU medical graduates (as far as I know) but following your licensing you will be expected by the authorities to have sufficient proficiency to communicate satisfactorily with patients.
(Most Swedes know enough English for basic communication - most of the imported movies and television series use subtitles rather than dubbing - but it is desirable that a doctor can understand the patients in their own language.)

You can find the internship application form and information here:
http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/applicati ... internship

For learning Swedish, the following web page is supposedly recommended:
http://www.studyinsweden.se/Learn-Swedish/

I hope this information was helpful, feel free to ask more questions if anything is unclear or if you think of anything else!
Yaoi
Inlägg: 2
Blev medlem: 11 maj 2012, 02:05

Re: Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av Yaoi »

Thank you for your kind answer, I hope it will be useful for more people.
Let me ask you some more questions.
1) My university issues my diploma in English; in this case, is this enough or do I need to have the portuguese one officially translated?
2) Since Im an EU citizen, I have no passport. Do you think the Socialstyrelsen accepts my ID card, as in Swedish borders or airports?
3) After Socialstyrelsen permits me to underwent a AT, what shall I do next? Contact each hospital / clinic individually, asking for AT programs, or is there any kind of database where I can apply directly?
Thank u
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Nils
driver läkarstudent.se
Inlägg: 4717
Blev medlem: 22 apr 2008, 23:52

Re: Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av Nils »

Yaoi skrev:Thank you for your kind answer, I hope it will be useful for more people.
Let me ask you some more questions.
1) My university issues my diploma in English; in this case, is this enough or do I need to have the portuguese one officially translated?
English is fine - it is one of the four languages listed as not requiring translation:
"The documents have to be translated into Swedish or English by an authorized translator. Documents issued in Denmark or Norway do not need to be translated."

Note that the copy of your diploma must be certified "by an organisation, institution or public authority". I guess the easiest would be to just ask the university for a certified copy...
2) Since Im an EU citizen, I have no passport. Do you think the Socialstyrelsen accepts my ID card, as in Swedish borders or airports?
Unfortunately, no:
"If you are not registered in Sweden for population purposes, enclose a certified copy of a valid passport instead. The passport does not need to be translated."
3) After Socialstyrelsen permits me to underwent a AT, what shall I do next? Contact each hospital / clinic individually, asking for AT programs, or is there any kind of database where I can apply directly?
The AT programs are decentralized even as far as announcements and applications are concerned.

They are usually announced in Läkartidningen ("jornal médico" if Google Translate is to be trusted) weeks number 9 and 38 during a year, with the application period usually lasting for two weeks, but some AT programs may also be announced at other times of the year. The AT programs are usually announced earlier than this on the websites of the different county councils.

We are currently at week number 20 so you should have ample time to get your diploma accepted - but avoid unnecessary delays, Socialstyrelsen has recently had severe problems handling the paperwork related to certifications and admissions.

If you are unfamiliar with week numbering, there is a weeks-to-dates translator here:
http://veckonr.se/
Thank u
You're welcome! :)
Fliploop

Re: Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av Fliploop »

Dear, Nils
I'd like to clarify a couple of questions:
You mentioned a salary, that is paid during AT internship - is it obtainable by anyone who is accepted to the internship (i mean EU citizens applying), or is there limited amount of paid internship spots?
Also, do internship applicants benefit from having clinical/research experiance, or are internships spots just given away "randomly" (I understand there's a queue?) ?
And did I understand You correctly - you don't need to be fluent in Swedish language to get accepted to the Internship? So I can work on my Swedish during the internship?
Thank you!
empezar
Inlägg: 666
Blev medlem: 20 apr 2008, 15:21

Re: Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av empezar »

If you get AT internship, you will get paid. There are no unpaid AT internships.
Fd läkarstudent (termin 7 Uppsala)
Wiiizzy
Inlägg: 239
Blev medlem: 05 aug 2011, 18:36

Re: Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av Wiiizzy »

Fliploop skrev: Also, do internship applicants benefit from having clinical/research experiance, or are internships spots just given away "randomly" (I understand there's a queue?) ?
The positions are much like any other job. Clinical experience is welcomed, if not required. Research experience could also benefit your chanses.

There is no queue per se. However, the fact that clinical experience is often required means that most Swedes will have to work as an "Underläkare" for a while whilst gaining experience.

At least this is the situation for Swedish medical graduates. I don't really know how one would go about gaining such experience in your case. Naturally clinical experience from any country is valued, but I reckon it's even better if one would be able to obtain some in Sweden (if indeed it is possible as an international graduate without swedish license?). As for the level of language proficiency required for various positions, I have no idea. Hopefully Nils or someone else will be able to give you better answers:)
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Nils
driver läkarstudent.se
Inlägg: 4717
Blev medlem: 22 apr 2008, 23:52

Re: Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av Nils »

These posts have been moved to a new thread:
http://läkarstudent.se/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2489
Paola skrev:Hi everybody! I just graduated from an Italian medical school and mean to apply for an AT program next year, as I cannot speak Swedish yet and therefore don't think a residency program would be an option with many chances to get in for me, even if I will have a licence to practice here in Italy by February 2013. I was wondering whether you could enlighten me a little bit about the steps to follow after I get an ok from SocialStyrelsten (hopefully I will send my documents by next week). I understand I have to wait until the 1st week of March but am not sure about what to do exactly after that time (or even if I can get in touch with some hospitals before that time in order to improve my chances).
Thank you all in advance,
Paola
Paola skrev:Sorry, I also wanted to ask your personal opinion about the AT programs and the role of the postgraduates in the Swedish medical system.
Thanks.
Paola
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Nils
driver läkarstudent.se
Inlägg: 4717
Blev medlem: 22 apr 2008, 23:52

Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av Nils »

This post has been moved to a separate thread:
http://läkarstudent.se/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4577
georges1992 skrev:hello, I'm an non-EU medical student at Saint George's university of London in Nicosia campus. I will graduate in 2017 with an MBBS-4 degree from Saint george's london. after, graduation my UK degree won't be fully licensed until i complete the foundation years in UK, but from what I understood that in Sweden it is possible to go through an AT internship program and get licensed after that in order to start specializing in Sweden. Being an non-EU with a UK medical degree would be a problem ?
iammesq

Portugal to AT and residency in Sweden

Inlägg av iammesq »

Dear Yaoi,

I'm so glad I found this post! I'm a young Portuguese doctor and I'm considering completing my formation :himlar: in Sweden. Since this post is from 3 years ago, I was wondering about what happened to you, mostly if you went along with your plan.

Hopefully you'll see this! :flinar:

PS: não conheço nenhum médico português que tenha ido para a Suécia. Seria bastante útil poder trocar umas ideias consigo :glad:
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