Stigma

It has begun. The discussion of the big white elephant in the room that everyone thinks they know, but don't speak about. Why a Caribbean medical school?  After all, we don't want to be penalized for coming here. I am personally aware of many international medical grads that are doing just fine in practice. It is much less an issue today than in prior years like when my friend went away. I still remember how strange it was to hear of his adventures. But now he is doing just fine in practice in Florida.

The discussion is hot here. The confluence of two forces merged yesterday...a comment from a teacher and an article in the NY times.  The comment was simple, off-handed and disturbing. One of our instructors said we "weren't smart enough for U.S. medical school." The article was about another Caribbean school landing a contract with NY hospitals, paying an exorbitant amount of money to exclusively send clinical students there. Apparently the discussion brought a furor among the medical intelligentsia of U.S. schools that send their students there.

I really don't know the truth of the whole, but for me it was a simple matter of not wanting to take MCATS again, and not wanting to repeat undergraduate courses that were "too old" according to many U.S. school.  Frankly, I wish there was a forward thinking hybrid medical school that accepted only nurse practitioners and physician assistants to train...one that dealt with practitioners in a different way than the average medical school treats it's students. That was one of the visions of Dr. Stead before he died.

Truth is my overall GPA, after a bachelors, masters (actually two of them if you count the non-accredited one) and a nearly finished doctorate (crapped out at the thesis stage during my break up)...was a solid 3.45. Ok so brain surgery is out. I'm not the smartest on the block, but my passion is there and the political system of entry into U.S. medical schools for older students is challenging. This provided open access to an education "door" that U.S. medical schools simply don't offer at this time. As long as I can build on my clinical knowledge and sit for USMLE and "match", I can get to the same end point. By the way, this is the entry to every scholar of medicine who trains outside of the U.S. and the numbers are staggering. For every position in residencies not sought by a U.S. grad, there are 5 international grads willing to accept an offer. And with the shortage of physicians now and in the future in the U.S. this phenomenon is only going to increase. I just have to stay above the fray, perform well, particularly in the clinical setting, and overcome.

I hate that I'll have to deal with people looking down their noses at me for going to a Caribbean medical school, but frankly I've been dealing with that prejudice for a long, long time as a PA. Only then it was, "when will you be finishing medical school honey?" As a PA, the answer was always a long explanation of what I did for a living. Now, I can say simply...soon.