Foreign trained doctors make up 25% of all physicians in the US. The vast number of these physicians have already been practicing for years in their country of origin. Many are in primary care, some surgery and various sub-specialties. However unless he or she attended medical school and residency in the UK or Canada, these physicians must take a long entrance exam, and then apply for repeat residency in a US institution. Such application is not guaranteed at all, in fact less than half of applicants who have passed the exam, are not accepted to a residency program (a process that is highly competitive since US medical students are given preference). By the time the physician might succeed (or admit defeat) several years has transpired. Even for those who are successful in landing a spot, yet another 3-7 years in residency/fellowship training is ahead.
A former pain specialist with GSPA (Paincare) was a cardio-thoracic surgeon in Czechoslovakia. Upon immigrating to the US he was able to do a residency in anesthesiology and fellowship in pain which required five years. Also, and many of you may not know, that our own Yelena Courchene in GSPA/ROAD Merrimack was an MD in family medicine in Russia. She decided to stay in medicine when she immigrated here from Russia, and became a PA-C, requiring two additional years in a field she already knew, well . I am looking forward to telling her complete fascinating story at a later time. FYI, our own Dr Girish Joshi at SFFH was trained in the UK, so he was able to immigrate here and immediately practice without repeat training.
The US is in desperate need of more physicians, yet the above nonsense persists and prevents well qualified physicians from practicing their specialty in US.
The post The Challenges Foreign Trained Doctors Face When Immigrating to the United States first appeared on Granite State Pain Associates.
