Not without a certain amount of re-training and demonstration of your French language skills.

https://www.conseil-national.medeci...ference-en-anesthesie-reanimation-l’usage-des-commissions-de-qualification-1166
should get you started.
Cheers,
Bev

 

I am an ENT who will be retiring to France in a few years. I have been tepidly interested in practicing there - maybe just as an assistant in surgery or seeing some office patients. I haven't done extensive research but I found this article by a British physician. It is very dated, but provides some interesting data.
Life as an omnipraticien in FranceLife as an omnipraticien in France: additional data | The BMJ
In addition, I get daily emails from Alerte Emploi Indeed which alerts me to physician jobs in France and their territories (DOM-TOM) and they always seem to have lots of jobs for anesthesiologists. There is also the American Hospital of Paris - you might look there as well.
I believe there is a shortage of family doctors in many areas of France, but specialists are generally well-represented. I believe our training in the US is well-respected, but language skills and differences in practice approach can be significant. Perhaps less so for an anesthesiologist! You might find the French equivalent of your professional society and visit their meeting. I went to a cochlear implant conference in Toulouse and made some aquaintances there. One of the best-known ENTs in France has invited me to a meeting in Paris next October for a meeting on French healthcare. You might look into Switzerland - I have a colleague who practices there as an American physician (recruited through a Swiss agency). Good luck!
All the best,
Brian

 

...but language skills and differences in practice approach can be significant. Perhaps less so for an anesthesiologist!..Brian

My wife has had both of her hips replaced (about a year apart) at a private clinic in Périgueux. Prior to both surgeries, she was required to interview and be examined by a cardiologist, a radiologist, a dentist (risk of infection in her teeth creating problems for the artificial hip), her anesthesiologist (about a 30 minute meeting), and her surgeon, with whom we met 3 times prior to the first surgery and twice before the second.

Imagine if you were required to have similar meetings in the US and discovered that one of the key medical staff didn't speak English well nor did s/he understand you very well when you asked questions.

Jill, best of luck finding something. Hopefully your French is exceptional.

Ray

 

One thing to be careful of, however, is that while there may be a reciprocity of qualifications for someone coming from within the EU, as an American you're not part of that system. It may be possible if you received your medical training in the EU. But in any event, you will need a fair level of French fluency at a minimum.

EU - Regulated professions - Your Europe - Your Europe
may get you started.
Cheers,
Bev

 

Absolutely true! Bevdeforges either knows everything or knows how to find it! If you look at the jobs I've searched they always require that one be "inscrit a l'Ordre des Medecins en France" and many times state "une parfaite maitrise de la langue Francaise". I purchased a medical French-English dictionary off of ebay. I don't think my French is any where near "parfaite" though!
My French is probably a B2 level but medical French is more difficult. Fortunately, anesthesiologists don't actually have to talk to people !!
However, looking at it from their (the French) perspective if you had a well-trained French anesthesiologist coming into your turf - depending on the moment, the presentation, etc. they may not be welcome at all! Unless you can be "invited" for a specific skill it will be difficult w/o additional training, I believe.
Teaching at a med school or other school might be an option.
Telemedicine (if you can put people to sleep over the phone!) or chronic pain treatment might be an option - live in France, practice from home via connection to a facility in the US.
Another option is locums work for 4 - 6 months of the year and stay in France the rest of the year??!!
Good luck,
Brian

 

My French is probably a B2 level but medical French is more difficult. Fortunately, anesthesiologists don't actually have to talk to people

They don't? I've never had, or seen, surgery where the anæsthetist did not interview the patient beforehand ...

 

Other options may be working for insurance companies, medical publishers or working as a technical writer/editor in medical or biological fields.If your French is up to it, doing translations of medical material would be another possibility.
Cheers,
Bev

 

We have an American friend who's an archeologist (who trained in France) and translations are how she is making her living at the moment. I should have thought of that to suggest.

Best of luck.

Ray

 

Hey DrJill.

Currently living in Paris and working in healthcare. It's not too too impossible to work here as a doc if you can land a 1--3 year fellowship and demonstrate competence in French. It's not that big of a deal compared to what European docs do to get to America: demonstrate competence in English, pass all the steps, and go through the whole match, internship, and residency process.

Also, depending on your chops, which could be stellar (who knows?), American Hospital of Paris can directly hire American physicians as a part of their charter, but you have to have the kind of resume that stands out from the crowd and is a real win for their institution. It's not an open door policy.

The thing I have learned about working in French hospitals and about French communication is that explanations remain limited as some kind of test for your persistence and also for your ability to build personal rapport. Culturally, there is very little a French person will just offer you in crystal clear bullet points. It's all about the warm-up here.

And, yes, they can and will make the biggest of fusses over their language. If you are like many docs I know, you might like to learn. It's fun once it stops sucking.. kind of like medicine. And luckily for you if you land among the highly educated set, they will have made some efforts with English.

Potential work:

PHARMA, PHARMA, PHARMA: oh how they love a clinical trial
Technical Writing: are you good at writing? There is that critical piece.
And then scrubbing into the OR: get your testing game ready and see what we would be required for a UK exam, which will be valid here or not depending on Brexit. They would have to honor it if you had it for the next little while in any event.

 

Wow!!! Thank you for all these responses! Great suggestions!!! I've got a few irons in fires there at the moment - research (I have a breast cancer project, from my surgical residency days), peds anesthesia (I've got subspecialty training), I even answered Macron's call for American scientists to move to France and do their research there (and made it past the first level!). But for the moment, I'm going to go the locums route here 50% of the time, and just move there. I'm enrolling in an intensive language course for 8 weeks, and hopefully that will fill in a few gaps from B2 to maitrise (or close). Maybe the peds thing will open doors. I'd rather not live in Paris (I used to live in Manhattan and I'm over big cities), but if working at American Hospital was the only option, I would. Thanks, everyone!!!

 

Hi All,

This is an interesting thread. We (my wife & myself) are also in a similar situation. I have a job offer in Paris and got to decide on moving in soon. We are in a dilemma because my wife is a paediatrician currently working in India and we are not too sure if she would be able to work once we move into France. Our whole decision of moving to France is depending on it because I don't want her to compromise on her career.

It is still ok, if she can work after completing the requisite certifications but the information that we have gathered so far does not look too encouraging.

Confused state of mind..

Matt

 

Hi All,

This is an interesting thread. We (my wife & myself) are also in a similar situation. I have a job offer in Paris and got to decide on moving in soon. We are in a dilemma because my wife is a paediatrician currently working in India and we are not too sure if she would be able to work once we move into France. Our whole decision of moving to France is depending on it because I don't want her to compromise on her career.

It is still ok, if she can work after completing the requisite certifications but the information that we have gathered so far does not look too encouraging.

Confused state of mind..

Matt

What information is that? AFAIK there is still a need for doctors in France (subject to going through the French certification process, of course).

 

In the early days of the EU, most of the medical professionals were specifically excluded from many of the "freedom of movement" rules and regulations - apparently due to the need for medical personnel to have a good grasp of the local language and medical system and practices/regulations.
Cheers,
Bev

 

Hello,

Are you still active on this Forum?
I am interested in your story as I am also an ENT living in France.

Brad

 

Since this thread is over two years old, I was wondering if anyone knows what DrJill ended up doing?