Medical School Question

[georgiegirl]

Here’s a great resource I found that lists how many residency spots there are for each specialty and how many were filled (plus training requirements and median salary). Data seems a bit old (2015 is most recent year.). But there aren’t many spots available. As you can see, family practice has the median lowest salary. And even that Specialty didn’t have many unfilled spots.

https://residency.wustl.edu/choosing...-descriptions/


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[NCGrandma]

Another issue that I don’t think has been mentioned. PPs have assumed that she would be considering doing residency in the US and the questions have been about how easy/hard it would be for a foreign medical graduate to get into a good US residency.

There’s another even more discouraging scenario that a number of physicians I have known have experienced. Unless the rules have changed significantly in the past few years, physicians who complete all of their training, through residency in another country, maybe also have some post-residency practice experience, and then decide to come to the US have to *repeat* residency in the US or find a way to practice in a related field where licensure requirements are less strict. I knew an experienced Chinese physician who ended up getting licensed in the US as an acupuncturist after other options seemed too daunting.

Does anyone know whether this requirement also applies to US citizens who complete all their training abroad? I can’t remember if anyone I knew was in that particular situation. But it was very onerous for those affected.


Sent from my iPad using Baby Bargains

[georgiegirl]

Another issue that I don’t think has been mentioned. PPs have assumed that she would be considering doing residency in the US and the questions have been about how easy/hard it would be for a foreign medical graduate to get into a good US residency.

There’s another even more discouraging scenario that a number of physicians I have known have experienced. Unless the rules have changed significantly in the past few years, physicians who complete all of their training, through residency in another country, maybe also have some post-residency practice experience, and then decide to come to the US have to *repeat* residency in the US or find a way to practice in a related field where licensure requirements are less strict. I knew an experienced Chinese physician who ended up getting licensed in the US as an acupuncturist after other options seemed too daunting.

Does anyone know whether this requirement also applies to US citizens who complete all their training abroad? I can’t remember if anyone I knew was in that particular situation. But it was very onerous for those affected.


Sent from my iPad using Baby Bargains

It’s not based on citizenship. It’s based in training. So yes, if you complete all your training in a foreign country, I’m pretty sure you need to re-do residency. Doesn’t matter if you are a citizen or not.
When DH was in residency, he met a guy from his same home country (DH was not a citizen when he applied for residency, but he had a green card). And this guy was working as a CNA even though he had completed his medical training in his home country. DH helped him out a lot with his applications and essays, so this guy did get a residency. But it was an extra long road.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[basil]

It can be very difficult to impossible to find a residency spot if you are a foreign/international medical grad (FMG/IMG). In a fair amount of specialties, your application won't even get looked at.

Do not go this route if you intend to practice in the US.

[mommy111]

Thank you all for the feedback. I will pass it on to DN. Sounds like doing it in the US despite the additional time and cost may be a better route for her? I think the issue will be whether that is financially viable or whether she should just consider going into something else altogether

[Globetrotter]

Ages ago my dad had to redo his residency when we moved from another country, though I think he got a year off or something. Somehow he got into a good residency program in an urban area but many of his friends settled in small town America according to demand. I think it’s much harder now as I believe we no longer have a physician shortage, aside from rural areas.
It’s definitely going to be more challenging initially, but I do know people who have gone to med school overseas because they didn’t get in here. personally I wouldn’t recommend it, but in the end it worked out for them and no one would ever know. You have to really want it!
If they want to save money, perhaps a better option is to commit to rural service in the US after graduation, or something like that, in exchange for loan repayment. I don’t know a whole lot about this but maybe someone else can chime in. https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topi...loan-repayment

She doesn’t need a fancy undergraduate degree so they can save money there. She has to get good grades and do well on the MCAT, plus do volunteer/research work. Many students do a masters and/or work first. It’s a looong road.

[NCGrandma]

Re: globetrotter's comment "no one will ever know.." re: physicians who went to international med schools when unable to get into a US school ... while that was likely to be true in the past, many large health systems provide a lot of info about all their clinicians' education, areas of interest, publications etc. This came up recently when a friend of mine started going through a diagnostic workup involving physicians from a variety of specialties. We of course immediately looked them all up on the health system website and were a bit surprised to see that one physician graduated from Ross University in Barbados. We then saw that after Ross, this physician did his residency at Harvard (there’s probably a story there...).


Sent from my iPad using Baby Bargains

[mommy111]

thank you all, this has been phenomenally useful in helping us provide her with some viewpoints re this

[Globetrotter]

Ha! This is true! I was thinking of someone I know who went to med school in the Bahamas or something, but now is very successful.
But there are many foreign medical graduates in this country who are extremely successful. After a point, once they are established it doesn’t matter, but honestly FMG immigration stopped around the 80s. I think it’s much more challenging now.