Sneha Sheth had just finished medical school and was ready to take the next step in her training: applying for residency programs. But when she went online to start filling out applications, she was met with a wave of disappointment. Of the 500 programs she was considering, nearly half had been rated as hostile to international medical students like her by the website Match a Resident, which helps medical students abroad navigate the U. S.
healthcare system. Sheth submitted her applications in September and spent months in anxious anticipation. Then came the anguish of rejections from numerous programs and the lack of answers from others. The frustrations of the matchmaking process, which assigns graduates to programs where they can start practicing medicine, made Dr.
Sheth question if she had been foolish to enroll in a Caribbean medical school. In the 1970s, a wave of medical schools began to open across the Caribbean, primarily targeting American students who had not been accepted to U. medical schools. Today, there are approximately 80 such schools, most of which are for-profit institutions that generate excessive revenue from tuition and fees for their investors.
The challenges faced by Caribbean medical students in advancing their careers have raised questions about the quality of their education. However, with the rapid increase in the number of medical schools around the world, from about 1,700 in 2000 to about 3,500 today, monitoring and reporting on the quality of medical schools abroad has proven to be a difficult task. In recent years, medical educators and accreditors have made a more concerted effort to assess the credibility of those institutions, with the goal of keeping applicants informed about shoddy Caribbean schools that charge tens of thousands of dollars in tuition and fees and sometimes don't position their students for professional success. The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) has already penalized two Caribbean medical schools: the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sciences, Arts and Technology of Montserrat and the School of Medicine at Atlantic University of Antigua and Barbuda.
The group refused to grant credentials to any graduates from these schools, saying they had discovered that they were “atrocious” in terms of how they treated students and misrepresented themselves. The Montserrat Medical School subsequently sued ECFMG but the case was dismissed in a U. court. The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sciences, Arts and Technology of Montserrat did not respond to requests for comment.
Dr. Simon said he expected students to be better protected by 2024 when accrediting organizations plan to complete evaluations of all international medical schools through a more rigorous accreditation process. One of the main accrediting bodies for Caribbean medical schools is the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (CAAM-HP). Lorna Parkins, executive director at CAAM-HP, said that some key factors they consider when denying accreditation include high dropout rates and low exam passing rates.
However, Caribbean schools sometimes misrepresent their accreditation status on their websites. Parkins said she sometimes hears from students who are having difficulty transferring from lower-quality schools. Looking back on his experience, Dr. Simon said he wishes he had applied to American schools again instead of going down the Caribbean route.
Although he was able to enter a residency program which he recently started, he found that the process caused him anxiety. Simon added that international medical graduates were more likely to pursue family medicine and work in underserved areas, especially in rural communities. Some students at Caribbean medical schools said that the quality of their education had declined even more in recent years as some campuses faced natural disasters. With few study spaces or electrical outlets available on board, freshman Kayla (who asked only to be identified by her first name) woke up every day at 2am to claim a place where she could study for the day.
She and her classmates said that if they looked up after their exams they would immediately feel nauseous. They said they couldn't take Dramamine because that would exacerbate their fatigue; some classmates left before semester's end because they couldn't bear studying conditions on board. Jenkins said one of the most important ways to protect students was ensuring transparency from schools. If you're currently a medical student many medical schools offer opportunities for visiting students and clinical electives away from home.
Therefore if you are a Canadian citizen who graduated from a medical school outside Canada or if you graduated from a Canadian medical school without Canadian citizenship you will be considered an IMG and will not be able to participate in Canada's residency equalization program. These may include year of graduation from medical school types of visas accepted or how many USMLE attempts are allowed. If your medical school doesn't traditionally offer MSPE (Medical Student Performance Evaluation) to its students you must work hard to get this important evaluation. The group also said it would take a closer look at standards set by organizations that accredit medical schools around the world.
An international medical graduate (IMG) is a student who completed their education outside Canada or the U. S., but intends to practice medicine in one or both countries. Otherwise any Canadian citizen who has graduated from an international medical school (including Canadian-eligible American medical schools) is considered an IMG. The residency equalization rate for international medical graduates is around 60 percent compared to more than 94 percent for U.
Some Canadian medical schools that offer programs for visiting students include University of Toronto Medical School Queen's University School of Medicine UBC School....
