The general director of Professional Planning of the Ministry of Health, Celia Gómez.
The Ministry of Health has published the provisional lists with the more than 450 candidates from abroad that they will face a theoretical-practical test with the aim of obtaining professional recognition of their specialist titles in some branch of Health Sciences. A list that has made it possible to offer an overview of the most demanded medical disciplines to practice in Spain.
The classification has placed two specialties at the head of the ranking. So much Family and Community Medicine as Anesthesiology and Resuscitation they have added 61 requests each, which is a strong difference with their immediate competitors. Between them they concentrate practically a quarter of all requests from the field of health that have been included in the official lists.
The listing publication also shows a high number of doctors dedicated to the Pediatrics and its different specific areas that concentrate a total of 48 requests. They follow a little further Obstetrics and Gynecology (35) Ophthalmology (33), Cardiology (27), Digestive system (21), radiodiagnosis (15), Medical-Surgical Dermatology and Venereology (15), Psychiatry (11) o intensive care (10).
On the other side of the balance, a series of specialties have remained that have a smaller scope among doctors outside our borders. It is the case of Otorhinolaryngology, Endocrinology, Medical Oncology o Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, all of them with 9 requests. They have left something above Urology (8), plastic (7), nephrology (5), Neurology (5) y Radiation Oncology (4).
Among the disciplines that fewer doctors have formalized their access to the validation test are Hematology and Hemotherapy (2), Geriatrics (2), Physical and Sports Education (2), Pathological anatomy (1), clinical neurophysiology (1) y clinical neurophysiology (1).
Orthopedics leads requests in surgery
The requests of doctors from abroad have also resulted in the request for validation of their titles from about forty surgeons from different fields. The most demanded area of the operating room is the orthopedic with a total of 13 applications, followed by General (9) y plastic (9). The list in this field is completed Neurosurgery (4), thoracic (2), pediatric (2), Cardiovascular (2) y Angiology (1).
Beyond Medicine, the provisional accepted lists for the exam have also included the presence of 16 professionals from the Nursing specialized in Obstetrics and Gynecology who want to validate the academic titles of their countries of origin to be able to practice as midwives.
The theoretical-practical test of recognition of titles is recognized by a Royal Decree published in 2010 with the aim of paving the way for specialists in Health Sciences from outside the European Union to practice in Spain. Those interested must provide the documentation of their studies, as well as accredit the language knowledge in case of not belonging to a Spanish-speaking country.
The test consists of two parts. The first is dedicated to evaluating the theoretical knowledge, clinical and diagnostic skills with a questionnaire of questions where the facets of the specialty will be addressed in a “balanced way”. While the second phase aims to verify that the applicants are capable of taking diagnostic decisions or therapists of their discipline.
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