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I'm looking for advice to help a dear friend in the middle of a mid-life crisis.
He graduated from medical school in his home country back in 1999, but never practiced medicine there. He came to the US soon thereafter and worked as an RN for several years and then quit to help a relative with his business. However, though he's been successful, he is not very happy in the business world and would like to get back into medicine. He took a refresher course to get his RN license back and is currently applying for RN jobs. However, he is not sure that he will be happy in the long-term as an RN either and would like to try to finish his medical education and become a doctor.
The options we are considering so far are:
1. Stick with nursing and do some continuing education if he gets bored, like CCRN, nurse practitioner, nurse anesthesiologist, etc. Maybe even use his business skills to start a home health care business. He can do nursing now, with the education he already has, make decent money, and enjoy a flexible schedule, but as somebody trained as a doctor, he finds nursing too easy and the lack of autonomy frustrating, plus he's not sure that he'll be happy introducing himself as "Greg, RN" instead of "Bob, MD" for the rest of his life and he doesn't want to go crawling back to the family business in a few years and listen to their "I told you so"s either.
2. Study for the boards, get ECFMG certified, and apply for the Match. My husband chose this route and it worked, but he was applying as an IMG 14 years out of med school and already had problems even getting programs to consider him. Our friend will likely be closer to 18 years out by the time he finishes the boards, so his chances of success seem even slimmer, plus his English and people skills (though adequate) aren't as good as my husband's so he's less likely to ace any interviews he eventually does land, which was probably the deciding factor in my husband getting matched. Therefore, we lean towards having him:
3. Re-take the pre-reqs (assuming that most places will think 15+ years is too long ago), study for the MCAT, and go through med school again. My husband doesn't think he has great chances of getting into a US MD school (he's a smart guy and had an excellent GPA back in med school, but mediocre English and family responsibilities - he's supporting his sick mother and divorced sister, plus he's engaged and hoping to start a family of his own - this time around are likely to hamper him), so we're looking into either US DO or Caribbean MD, but I'm concerned about all the reports that Caribbean graduates will have an increasingly difficult time matching over the next few years and don't want him to end up in his mid-40s with tens of thousands of debt and no prospects for residency. So at this point I lean towards trying for US DO, with Caribbean MD as a backup plan.
Based on the situation I've described, do you agree that this seems like the best choice, or would you go for one of the other routes? Do you have any advice for how a person of his background can increase his chances of acceptance?
He graduated from medical school in his home country back in 1999, but never practiced medicine there. He came to the US soon thereafter and worked as an RN for several years and then quit to help a relative with his business. However, though he's been successful, he is not very happy in the business world and would like to get back into medicine. He took a refresher course to get his RN license back and is currently applying for RN jobs. However, he is not sure that he will be happy in the long-term as an RN either and would like to try to finish his medical education and become a doctor.
The options we are considering so far are:
1. Stick with nursing and do some continuing education if he gets bored, like CCRN, nurse practitioner, nurse anesthesiologist, etc. Maybe even use his business skills to start a home health care business. He can do nursing now, with the education he already has, make decent money, and enjoy a flexible schedule, but as somebody trained as a doctor, he finds nursing too easy and the lack of autonomy frustrating, plus he's not sure that he'll be happy introducing himself as "Greg, RN" instead of "Bob, MD" for the rest of his life and he doesn't want to go crawling back to the family business in a few years and listen to their "I told you so"s either.
2. Study for the boards, get ECFMG certified, and apply for the Match. My husband chose this route and it worked, but he was applying as an IMG 14 years out of med school and already had problems even getting programs to consider him. Our friend will likely be closer to 18 years out by the time he finishes the boards, so his chances of success seem even slimmer, plus his English and people skills (though adequate) aren't as good as my husband's so he's less likely to ace any interviews he eventually does land, which was probably the deciding factor in my husband getting matched. Therefore, we lean towards having him:
3. Re-take the pre-reqs (assuming that most places will think 15+ years is too long ago), study for the MCAT, and go through med school again. My husband doesn't think he has great chances of getting into a US MD school (he's a smart guy and had an excellent GPA back in med school, but mediocre English and family responsibilities - he's supporting his sick mother and divorced sister, plus he's engaged and hoping to start a family of his own - this time around are likely to hamper him), so we're looking into either US DO or Caribbean MD, but I'm concerned about all the reports that Caribbean graduates will have an increasingly difficult time matching over the next few years and don't want him to end up in his mid-40s with tens of thousands of debt and no prospects for residency. So at this point I lean towards trying for US DO, with Caribbean MD as a backup plan.
Based on the situation I've described, do you agree that this seems like the best choice, or would you go for one of the other routes? Do you have any advice for how a person of his background can increase his chances of acceptance?
