Less than half of foreign-trained immigrant physicians who apply for American medical residencies succeed, and those who do face a time-consuming, rigorous licensure process, according to a New York Times report.
Residencies are required for foreign physicians, even if the physician completed a residency in a country with an advanced medical system, such as Great Britain. Physicians who completed residencies in Canada are the only exception to this rule, according to the report.
Along with an additional medical residency here in the states, foreign physicians must prove they speak English, pass three separate steps of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination, receive American recommendation letters and become permanent U.S. residents or obtain a work visa. The entire process can take more than a decade, according to the report.
Within the past five years, an average of 42.1 percent of foreign-trained immigrant physicians who applied for residencies through the U.S. national match system succeeded. That's nearly half of the average match rate of 93.9 percent for seniors at America's mainstream medical schools, according to the report.
One physician mentioned in the report has failed to match for three years in a row. Some take other jobs, such as those in the hospitality industry, or they move into other healthcare careers that require fewer years of training.
Some experts say the process doesn't make sense when the United States is facing a physician shortage. Nyapati R. Rao, MD, chairman of psychiatry at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y., said it's "doubtful" that America can respond to the massive shortages without the participation of international medical graduates. "But we're basically ignoring them in this discussion, and I don't know why that is," he said in the report.
Others say the licensure process is important so physicians do not flee poor countries, where the public often fund medical training.
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