Unopposed FM Residency possible for Foreign Grad?

[ScatmanCrothers]

I am currently applying to medical schools for entry in Fall 2015, and so far do not have very promising prospects for any US schools (including DO), so I am starting to look at Caribbean schools and Mexican schools.

My goals: I eventually want to go into international emergency medicine, and am thinking about taking the unopposed FM residency route to get there, as it seems like it would be excellent overall training, and I would really enjoy working as both a primary care and emergency physician in an underserved area while I am in the country in between international trips.
Side question: If I do an unopposed FM residency, would this alone prepare me to work as an emergency physician in the US, or would I need to do an additional fellowship?

Main question: I have heard unopposed FM residencies are much more competitive than opposed FM residencies, so I am wondering what my chances would be as an FMG. Would it be easier to pursue a strictly emergency medicine residency as an FMG? Or perhaps do an opposed FM residency and then a 1 year EM fellowship afterwards?

Bonus question: I have been looking into UCLA's International Medical Graduate Program, which is aimed at preparing FMG's to work in Family Medicine in underserved areas in California. Does anyone know what the chances of matching to an unopposed FM residency from this program would be? Does this seem like a viable option for what my goals are? And if so, does anyone know of any similar programs at other US schools?

Thanks!

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[VA Hopeful Dr]

My residency usually had 2-3 out of a yearly class of 12 who were carribean students.

You will have to either go rural or VA to do full time EM as an FP. The EM fellowship won't really change that, its mainly to make you more comfortable with EM.

EM residencies are much more competitive than FM, even for US MD students.

 

[ScatmanCrothers]

Thanks for the reply. Are you speaking strictly about unopposed FM residencies, or about FM residencies in general?

 

[W19]

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[VenturaResident]

Thanks for the reply. Are you speaking strictly about unopposed FM residencies, or about FM residencies in general?

I'm concerned that you might be laboring under the misconception that all unopposed FM residencies are better than all opposed FM residencies, which is not the case. There are great and competitive programs in each category.

 

[ScatmanCrothers]

Thanks for bringing that point up, but rest assured I am well aware of it . I am not striving for an unopposed residency because I think it is "better" than an opposed residency, I just have a huge interest in EM and do not think I would be willing to become an FP if I could not also practice EM.

With my question to VA Hopeful Dr, I was simply wondering if he was speaking of unopposed, opposed, or both types of residencies with the two statements that he made, mainly:
1. That his specific residency had 2-3 Caribbean students per year
2. That the only way to do full time EM as an FP is rural or VA

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Thanks for bringing that point up, but rest assured I am well aware of it . I am not striving for an unopposed residency because I think it is "better" than an opposed residency, I just have a huge interest in EM and do not think I would be willing to become an FP if I could not also practice EM.

With my question to VA Hopeful Dr, I was simply wondering if he was speaking of unopposed, opposed, or both types of residencies with the two statements that he made, mainly:
1. That his specific residency had 2-3 Caribbean students per year
2. That the only way to do full time EM as an FP is rural or VA

My residency was unopposed in the southeast. However, most of the programs in my state (4 unopposed, 3 opposed) took at least 1 carb grad per year.

The EM thing has very little to do with FM anymore. There are more and more EM boarded doctors out there, so they're the ones getting the jobs in more desirable locations (ie. cities). I've worked in 3 hospital system over the last 5 years. Only 1 of them had any FM docs working in the ED, and that was only in the fast track part (except the FMs who started in the 80s, they just kept their jobs).

You might consider (though Blue Dog will get me on this one) looking around for particularly high acuity urgent cares. The other system in town where I am uses both EM and FM in their urgent cares, which are basically just free standing EDs based on how they're set up and some of the stuff they see.

 

[ScatmanCrothers]

I see, thanks a ton for your expertise! It is sounding more and more like I might be better off shooting for an EM residency so that I can work as a full fledged ED doc while in the states, however hard that might be as an FMG.