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Ukrainian doctor fighting to work in Nova Scotia

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Earlier this week, Dr. Aliks Schamlat voiced his frustrations with not being able to continue his medical practice in Nova Scotia. That has now changed.

“It’s a nice day in my life, really. I am very, very excited,” says Schamlat.

The Ukrainian-trained general practitioner and gynaecologist had a meeting Friday morning with operators of a program to integrate foreign educated health professionals, and now he finally has the ball rolling.

“They told me that next week, I think, they will be offering me a job in the hospital, like an assistant or a health aide,” Schamlat says.

Schamlat is just one of more than 230 people registered with the program. Forty participants are already in the province looking for work in a variety of health care roles from I.T. to cardiology.

“We are working with each individual to understand what are their needs and what are their interests, and many of them have indicated that they are ready to start right away because they want to be in a healthcare environment,” says program manager Julia Guk.

Streamlined training sessions are about to start to expedite the qualification process for nurses.

“We have developed a four-month program which will start in September and we are very excited about that. The time we get people into the bridging program to the time they are going to be in practice will be just four months,” says Tara Sampalli, Nova Scotia Health’s senior scientific director.

Training will take place in cohorts so when they’re ready, the entire cohort will be able to enter the health care field.

“That is very fast if you can think of all the criteria that we are trying to support and after they transition to practice,” Sempalli says.

As for Schamlat, his new job is in Truro. That’s where he plans to work once his license to practice medicine is granted.

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