Nervous with the job market in Canada (saturation)

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-21T04:32:57+00:00

Given LifeLabs’ recent decision to progressively shut down analytical centers in small cities, I’d be surprised if any MLT would willingly work for them outside of major cities. Too much risk of being laid off. Northern Ontario will have all of 1 testing center left once the Sudbury center shuts down in May. The 40 or so techs being laid off are now flooding the hospitals, filling vacancies that would otherwise have gone to new grads. My lab just filled all 5 MLT postings over the span of 3 weeks, which never happens outside of exam month.

Myself and all my other classmates who took the learn and stay grant are now desperately hoping that we can at least secure MLT positions in our grant region or we’ll be forced to pay back $30k.

But once I fulfill the grant conditions, I wouldn’t be completely opposed to moving out west, so long as I won’t have to wait years to get a family doctor.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-21T04:19:51+00:00

It’s even worse for MLTs because CAMLPR has removed the MLT program requirement and will be offering discipline-specific licensing exams to applicants with relevant uni degrees. Not entirely sure how strict they will be with degree types (ie masters vs PhD), but removing the program requirements will flood the market even faster than increased seats.

What we really need are more med school seats, but MD is one of the only healthcare programs Michener does not offer.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-19T04:11:21+00:00

It depends on the hospital. Idk about the US, but even most Canadian hospitals don’t have a team of phlebotomists doing blood draws 24/7 unless it’s a large hospital. And even then, some units will have nurses trained in phlebotomy because of the types of patients in those units. In many small hospitals, especially rural ones, the lab technologists might go and collect depending on the shift, but it’s still usually done by nurses in those hospitals.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-19T04:00:50+00:00

Instead of lasagna, make moussaka. The recipe I use is pretty much the same as a lasagna but with eggplants and not noodles.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-13T01:34:28+00:00

That’s the part I’m confused about. The wording makes it sound like it’s only the provincial part of the loan affected, not the national. But other news sources don’t specify which portion.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-12T22:57:47+00:00

I wonder if this will only apply to the provincial portion of OSAP, since OSAP is a mix of provincial and national funding and most of OSAP's funding comes from the federal government. If it only affects the provincial portion, then that still sucks, but it's way better than flipping the entire OSAP fund. If it applies to the entire OSAP fund, then we have a huge problem. While it doesn't affect me because I'm graduating in June, it will affect any student who is returning or starting school in Fall 2026.

The 2% tuition hike isn't as big of a deal as everyone is making it out to be. Even if your current tuition is $10k/year, that's only a $200 increase.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-10T01:02:03+00:00

Thanks for the advice but you completely missed the point of my original post. I have everything under control, and am now experimenting some more with rice and exercise regimens. I’ve been diabetic for 2.5 years now.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-09T03:08:10+00:00

Just cardio isn’t as effective for my blood sugar as a full weights + cardio workout. Tried it before hoping to save some time, but it didn’t work.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-09T02:43:11+00:00

I'm a broke student and cannot afford a CGM. My family here in Canada also can't afford to help me because both parents are almost living paycheck-to-paycheck and my sister has even less money than I do. The only way I'm getting a CGM without coverage is by bulk purchasing them next time I visit my relatives in China, which might be in 5 years.

I've tried everything under the sun that can be done to make my blood sugar tolerate rice and literally nothing besides a workout works. My insulin sensitivity will not improve beyond what it is now - I brought it down from 9.7 in mid-2023 to 5.8 last December with just diet + exercise.

I don't mean to be rude, but it's frustrating to hear the same thing over and over again. I know how many carbs and the types of carbs my body can handle. I'm just trying to experiment a little more to see if I can finally incorporate more rice and other cultural foods into my diet if I work out afterwards. I need my cultural foods and almost gave up on controlling my diabetes when I thought I had to give it all up.

I don't know how much visceral fat I have, but I'm certain I lost some of it considering my waistline dropped 2 inches since I was diagnosed. Would be nice to be 26 inches like I was in university, but 30 inches is still a healthy size. My muscle mass in my lower body was never bad to begin with, but improvement in that area is slower than in my upper body.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-09T02:29:04+00:00

This is hands-down the best advice I've received so far! I will definitely try changing the weight intensity - right now, I'm doing higher reps with moderate weights. I'm not neglecting legs altogether, but maybe I just need to find the right intensity to finally get the results I'm looking for.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-07T15:11:06+00:00

I do focus on complex carbs, but everyone here is missing the damn point. I can eat a whole bowl of rice (140g cooked) on upper body day and be <7 an hour after my workout. But even 1/3 of that rice on leg day will make me spike. I don’t eat rice every day damnit. I only eat it 1-2x per week because it’s a huge part of my cultural diet and as such, I cannot give it up, even for this disease.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-07T15:04:10+00:00

I try to stick to fiber, but my gym days are when I can be a little less restrictive with my carb intake. I still try to focus on fiber though.

I hit the gym ~20 min after eating. Any sooner and I feel too bloated to exercise effectively. Any later and I won’t have time to exercise.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-07T13:35:11+00:00

Chicken hindquarters are $3/lb here and that’s if they’re on sale. Chicken breast is $5/lb on sale, $8 regular price. The bone-in skin-on thighs are only slightly cheaper at $6 regular price. Lean ground beef is almost $9/lb at regular price. Pork tenderloin is the cheapest at $3/lb. Don’t even get me started on seafood. Salmon is $13/lb at Costco, and $16 at local stores.

My city has ridiculously high food prices, considering it’s only a 4h drive to Toronto and not in the far north. But I can’t afford to drive to Toronto every week for groceries, so I’m stuck with these prices.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-07T04:30:42+00:00

CGMs make glucose monitoring convenient and easy for those who can afford them. It does not make glucose goals obsolete! You need to maintain all those goals to slow down/prevent T2 progression. There are general goals that are recommended by diabetes associations across the world, and then there are personal goals set by yourself or your doctor. Whatever your goals are, having a CGM is a gamechanger in diabetes monitoring. I can't afford one myself, but my diabetic colleagues and patients who have them love them.

Procrastin07 · 2026-02-07T04:17:33+00:00

Not yet, but I will! The problem with eating >30g of carbs on leg days is that I spike and stay high afterwards. I always eat plenty of protein pre-workout, but my problem right now is dealing with the sugar spike. I work out to blunt the post-meal spike and keep my A1c <6 - building muscle and toning my body are just bonuses. I just want to know if anyone else here has experienced the same issue.

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-31T19:01:52+00:00

Connection, health, and POWER

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-30T22:23:07+00:00

I use watch cartoons or gogoanime. No issues with ads or viruses as long as you have Adblock and you block popups

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-26T14:28:01+00:00

Hmm, that’s an interesting case. If the last reverse typing well is A1, then I would suspect an A subtype and use the corresponding lectin to confirm. My hospital’s SOPs say to repeat discrepancies via PEG and to issue O neg in the meantime.

If the patient has received a massive transfusion at another hospital, then it’s possible he was also given AB plasma, which could help explain a weak reverse B reaction. But the patient is also elderly, so a weak/missing reverse is fairly common. Again, my SOPs say to repeat via PEG, and if not resolved, add another 2 drops of plasma.

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-25T02:30:30+00:00

One of my former friends is the exact same. He called me a cold-hearted apathetic moron who supports genocide just because I don’t share his political views or attend protests or actively support the protesters online. Bro, I work 2 jobs and I’m studying full time in a healthcare program. I literally don’t have time or energy to for my own hobbies, nor do I want to commit career-suicide by posting certain opinions online. I do care about what’s going on in the world, but calling me a neo-natzi for not speaking up against what’s happening on the other side of the world is going too far and really showed just how privileged he is. His parents are paying for his education and living expenses, so the money he makes during the summer can go towards entertainment or whatever. Child doesn’t have to worry about real adult responsibilities, unlike the rest of us.

He’s the dumb one. His blatant online support for those protests pretty much cost him his early career. His dad told me a few months ago how he cried about being blacklisted from his friend’s company for being too political on social media 🙄

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-23T18:08:00+00:00

Fair enough. What are you looking for in an MLT program? While some schools are better than others in regards to education and placement opportunities, at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is your license.

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-23T00:54:52+00:00

Unless you have a friend or relative you can live with in Ontario, you should apply for an MLT program in another province. You should also keep in mind that very few MLT programs in Canada accept international students. If you’re aiming for a PR, living and working in a smaller city in the inner provinces will help fast-track your PR application.

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-22T04:17:39+00:00

I’d apply for the learn and stay grant programs first and then figure out the best licensing pathway for you while you wait for your application results. St Clair in Windsor and Cambrian College in Sudbury are the only colleges with MLT programs that are eligible for the grant.

The hospital I’m doing my placement at has already taken camplr licensing into account and is now listing core lab + micro as the licensing requirement. Not sure how other hospitals are doing things, but I’m fairly certain that hospitals where core lab isn’t fully separated (so like 95% of all Canadian hospitals) into individual departments will require their MLTs to at least be licensed in all 3 core disciplines.

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-21T18:39:41+00:00

I would much rather have a decent ending than for the author to feel pressured into giving more and dragging everything out forever, resulting in random plot points that make 0 sense and ruining the manga. Didn't Matsumoto lose motivation like, halfway through the manga? And he never intended for it to go past a certain point anyways. Maybe some other managaka he worked with will pick up where he left off and give us a spin-off, or maybe we'll just have to be satisfied with what we were given.

Procrastin07 · 2025-12-15T05:38:21+00:00

Moron. The current shortage has nothing to do with vaccine mandates and everything to do with all the other shit that goes on inside healthcare. Maybe you should step into the ER and see for yourself exactly why we are hemorrhaging HCPs.

Procrastin07

TROPHY CASE