uk certified anesthesiologist consultant in the usa

[Steve brown]

hi - I wonder if you could please help me with a question?
My wife is a British anesthesiologist consultant.
She now resides in the usa married to myself and so has a green card and is teaching fellows pediatric anesthesia at a university hospital.
She has sat her usmle and passed all parts and this year (her second full year) she will gain a state medical license.
However she has not done a US residancy and so is also not board certified!
However she is currently teaching and helping fellows.
After this year the rules of the hospital are changing and they are saying you must be board certified!!!
How can she achieve this without doing a residancy? (She did this in the uk 14 years ago!) she is not going to go and do a residancy here and so what other options does she have? Any help would be much appreciated
She is very depressed and we are thinking of moving back to the U.K. And I will renounce my citizenship if need be to do this as she is passionate about her job and would like to stay here in the usa but it's looking bleak?

Any help and advise would be most welcome, I believe this change will effect many not just my wife.

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[NotAProgDirector]

I am surprised she is able to get a medical license. Are you certain she isn't getting her ECFMG certification? That's what she will get after she completes her USMLE, but it's not a medical license.

Unfortunately, the main way to get board certified is to complete a residency. Some boards have an alternative pathway, but it is often limited to foreign physicians of international acclaim. And the ABA doesn't seem to have such a pathway anyway. The ABA information brochure is here: http://www.theaba.org/PDFs/BOI/BOI_PrimaryCertification

 

[Steve brown]

Thank you so much for your reply.
I can confirm that she already has her ECFMG after she completed all 3 steps in 2013.
Since then she has been training fellows and residancy students at a university.
She is applying for her state license and will get that this year, but that does not really help her with the board certification.

Which leads me back to my original question of how she would be able to get board certification without doing a residancy?

It seems bizarre that as a British pediatric anesthetic consultant her qualifications are not recognized in the USA!

Therefore it seems the only choices we have are to find a hospital that accepts non board certified, do a residancy in the USA or CANADA which would be a waste of her time, skill and nothing more than a five year tick box exercise, or reside to another country.

I am sure there are many foreign doctors and specialists like my wife out there in the USA and this new rule will probably lead to a shortage in the future of skilled doctors.

Any advice or answers would be most welcome, as after this years contract finishes it seems she will be unemployed and we have to decide on our next step.

 

[UBC2014]

Thank you so much for your reply.
I can confirm that she already has her ECFMG after she completed all 3 steps in 2013.
Since then she has been training fellows and residancy students at a university.
She is applying for her state license and will get that this year, but that does not really help her with the board certification.

Which leads me back to my original question of how she would be able to get board certification without doing a residancy?

It seems bizarre that as a British pediatric anesthetic consultant her qualifications are not recognized in the USA!

Therefore it seems the only choices we have are to find a hospital that accepts non board certified, do a residancy in the USA or CANADA which would be a waste of her time, skill and nothing more than a five year tick box exercise, or reside to another country.

I am sure there are many foreign doctors and specialists like my wife out there in the USA and this new rule will probably lead to a shortage in the future of skilled doctors.

Any advice or answers would be most welcome, as after this years contract finishes it seems she will be unemployed and we have to decide on our next step.

Canada should recognize her credentials, may take a bit of time - but t at least there is reciprocity. There are many Drs who trained in the UK in Canada.

Unfortuantely , in the US as far as I know you would have to redo residency. Only Canada MD residency training is accepted by the US.

 

[Steve brown]

Thank you for your reply.
Yes it seems that way.

To be honest rather than go through Canadian residancy and fight immigration all over again I think we will probably denounce our American citizenship and return to the uk.

Thanks for the info, if anyone else has any ideas or options we would love to hear them - thanks

 

[NotAProgDirector]

If she has a license, why not just find a job at another hospital that won't require board certification?

 

[Steve brown]

She will have a state license. It's a good call and yes we could. I am not sure which hospitals and teaching schools and university's require board certification and which ones don't but it seems like most of them do and my best guess is this will be nationwide eventually due to insurance companies and who ever else in controlling this development.
But so we want to move buy a house and have this happen again to us in a year or two?
But in answer to your question yes we could but for how long.
Seems a shame that she can teach fellows and residents but not recognized? and now being told to be a resident!
At 38 and been there and done it before it's not inspiring to be a three year tick box and will become de skilled over that time.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Good points all. No easy answers. The US does not recognize any other country's training.

 

[UBC2014]

Good points all. No easy answers. The US does not recognize any other country's training.

(Except Canadian, AFAIK in most cases).

 

[Ischemia1032]

Most academic centers are not going to want a UK doctor without residency and fellowship. She may have a shot at private practice if she can prove herself.