New MD bridge program

[SinkingShip]

First, let me ask forgiveness for the click bait title. This is about an MD bridge program. It is simply not open to PAs. I have discovered that there is an MD bridge program available exclusively to FMG (foreign medical graduates). Let me explain. 

If you are a PA, you probably did a four year undergraduate degree followed by a 27 months Masters degree in Medicine. If you choose the Medical school, you will be required to go to 4 years undergraduate medical education and typically 3 years internal medicine residency. Total time : 4 + 2 + 4 + 3 = 13 years. Costs will vary.

If you are a foreigner, the child of an oligarch, you simply go to a foreign medical school such as MBBS , which is simply a 5 year program after high school. From there , you can gain entry in the United States Internal Residency programs. Total time 4 + 3 = 7. 

I work at a VA Medical center affiliated with one of the medical schools in New Mexico (I won't name the school). However, the majority of the Internal Medicine Resident effectively are FMG enjoying the "Bridge Program". Very few of them speak English and they cannot understand the spoken English of the patients. However, they enjoy residency positions.

You might wonder why PAs cannot have a similar bridge program. The answer lies in the makeup of the FMG. Most people think of immigrants in the tradition of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. These were immigrants escaping war, poverty, famine, plague. They arrived with the clothes on their back and scratched their way to a better life. 

The Foreign Medical Graduate you find in residency programs today is typically the child of an oligarch. It was the vast family wealth that guaranteed his position in a MBBS (medical school). As US residency programs struggle to get training dollars, it is the Oligarchs that pay off the residency programs to take their child, the future doctor, for US residency training. The requirements for English speaking are easily bypassed by financial payoffs to the overseers in the US who are financially stricken.

Next time you walk past that foreign doctor in the hospital, remember, he stole the seat in residency that belonged to you, the PA. He stole it with his vast family wealth which purchased it for him. Medicine is NOT a meritocracy. 

[CAAdmission]

I can't event think of a hospital in the local area where the internal medicine residency program is primarily filled with US grads. Many of them I can't even find a single US grad.

[lkth487]

What a terrible post.  Many FMGs had to score literally in the 99.99% to gain entry - it is FEROCIOUSLY competitive for state schools.  The private schools are another matter.  Most foreign med schools are actually a lot harder to get into, and to get through, than my med school was.

I have worked with a lot of new FMG grads and I think your characterization is terrible and completely unfair.  I would ask you to provide data to back up your assertions.  You are also factually wrong - all residents get paid based on certain criteria - the residencies do not accept payments from the applicants to accept them into their program.  That is an insane (and would be illegal if true) assertion and you need to really back that up before spreading stuff like that.

 And if you look at outcomes, FMGs might have Actually slightly better outcomes than us who went to fancy US schools.

On top of all of your factual mistakes, you are also confusing things.  The medical schools are free to offer bridge programs.  That has nothing to do with residencies.  FMGs don't take spots in US med schools from PAs or other US grads.  Generally speaking, a US grad is almost always preferred in residency selection over FMGs.  If med schools offered bridge programs, the graduate of that program would almost certainly get that spot in a residency over a FMG.  Your beef is not with FMGs.  It's to convince US med schools to offer bridge programs, or to convince the regulators/authorities/medical boards to allow PAs to take STEPS and apply for residencies.

And by the way, you can check my post history on this - I totally support PAs being able to take STEPs and go into residencies - and I want bridge programs.  FMGs are not the roadblock.

[Hope2PA]

43 minutes ago, lkth487 said:

What a terrible post.  Many FMGs had to score literally in the 99.99% to gain entry - it is FEROCIOUSLY competitive for state schools.  The private schools are another matter.  Most foreign med schools are actually a lot harder to get into, and to get through, than my med school was.

I have worked with a lot of new FMG grads and I think your characterization is terrible and completely unfair.  I would ask you to provide data to back up your assertions.  You are also factually wrong - all residents get paid based on certain criteria - the residencies do not accept payments from the applicants to accept them into their program.  That is an insane (and would be illegal if true) assertion and you need to really back that up before spreading stuff like that.

 And if you look at outcomes, FMGs might have Actually slightly better outcomes than us who went to fancy US schools.

On top of all of your factual mistakes, you are also confusing things.  The medical schools are free to offer bridge programs.  That has nothing to do with residencies.  FMGs don't take spots in US med schools from PAs or other US grads.  Generally speaking, a US grad is almost always preferred in residency selection over FMGs.  If med schools offered bridge programs, the graduate of that program would almost certainly get that spot in a residency over a FMG.  Your beef is not with FMGs.  It's to convince US med schools to offer bridge programs, or to convince the regulators/authorities/medical boards to allow PAs to take STEPS and apply for residencies.

And by the way, you can check my post history on this - I totally support PAs being able to take STEPs and go into residencies - and I want bridge programs.  FMGs are not the roadblock.

Agree with lkth487, I have heard of  a few foreign medical doctors who could not gain residency and practice in US.  A friend of mine had one that was accepted to his PA program and ended up on probation after second semester, Thankfully he couldn't practice medicine in the US. (I am fairy sure he ended up graduating and passing PANCE, but had to work for it)

[ApolloPA]

I don’t even know where to start OP, good job.  

[guiriguiri]

I’m on an internal medicine rotation currently and the non-US born residents have uniformly been excellent, at least as competent and hardworking as their US-born counterparts. 

Please take your xenophobia elsewhere.