Step I Alternative to usmle?

Started by Guyton Killah
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Guyton Killah

Guyton Killah

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15+ Year Member
I am a non-US citizen intending to work in the US in few years to come. But the whole USMLE sounds like to much of a process to me. Lets say I do residency in a foreign country, would I still have to do all these exams?

Any non-US citizens out there planning to take these exams? How do you do it? You can add me to your friends list.
 
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Guyton Killah said:
I am a non-US citizen intending to work in the US in few years to come. But the whole USMLE sounds like to much of a process to me. Lets say I do residency in a foreign country, would I still have to do all these exams?

Any non-US citizens out there planning to take these exams? How do you do it? You can add me to your friends list.
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As someone else has already said you will have to take all the exams. There is no alternative.

And you have to do a US residency. My preceptor did a peds residency in his home country and then had to come to the US and apply to another residency and do it again. Its just the way it is.
 
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Good question, Guyton Killah...my uncle is the head of department of surgery at a med school out in Pakistan..he's received government medals for his medical work, was elected president of the college of physicians and surgeons over there, and was even nominated to be Health Minister (equivalent to surgeon general here)...and after all that, when he inquired about coming to America to practice, they simply told him "take the USMLE and do residency, BITCH".
 
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Captopril said:
Good question, Guyton Killah...my uncle is the head of department of surgery at a med school out in Pakistan..he's received government medals for his medical work, was elected president of the college of physicians and surgeons over there, and was even nominated to be Health Minister (equivalent to surgeon general here)...and after all that, when he inquired about coming to America to practice, they simply told him "take the USMLE and do residency, BITCH".
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
on the other hand, not funny at all. your poor uncle.
 
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I was under the impression that if you were attending level in your own country and took the USMLE and any other relevant exams you could then apply for attending jobs without doing residency there?
 
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I don't think so. In order to practice here, you have to be licensed. To be licensed, you need to do residency. To do residency, you need to take USMLE. I think it's also true vice versa for most countries; a US physician wanting to practice in Europe would have to complete a residency in the home country.

bambi said:
I was under the impression that if you were attending level in your own country and took the USMLE and any other relevant exams you could then apply for attending jobs without doing residency there?
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I thought you had to do 1 year at most maybe to be licensed and then apply for attending posts. I'm pretty sure that once you have your CCT in the UK you are pretty much good to go.
 
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bambi said:
I thought you had to do 1 year at most maybe to be licensed and then apply for attending posts. I'm pretty sure that once you have your CCT in the UK you are pretty much good to go.
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The requirements might depend on what your country of origin is and also where you are wanting to work. For example (completely making this up) a doctor from England might be able to come to the U.S. and get a job with less required of him/her whereas a doctor from Azerbaijan coming to the U.S. might have to go through the whole residency process. I'm sure some of the national medical boards of European nations have some sort of set up that makes it easy for them to come over. During my elective at UCSF last year, there were a crapload of German doctors who were attendings and had never done a U.S. residency.

There was also a controversy I had read about a couple years back regarding head of Cardiology at UC Irvine. He had essentially come over from India and taken over the job of Head of Dept, but they found out that he never did residency or something so he was dismissed.
 
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Captopril said:
Good question, Guyton Killah...my uncle is the head of department of surgery at a med school out in Pakistan..he's received government medals for his medical work, was elected president of the college of physicians and surgeons over there, and was even nominated to be Health Minister (equivalent to surgeon general here)...and after all that, when he inquired about coming to America to practice, they simply told him "take the USMLE and do residency, BITCH".
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LOLOLOLOL

It depends on the state, but in general, at least 3 years of residency before they will consider granting a license, and you need the USMLEs to get a residency. No ways around that.

AMGs can do 1 year of residency and still get a full/unrestricted license.

These are NC state laws BTW (I'm from NC).

-T
 
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I'm not sure how residency is done at UK but I think the program length is shorter compared to ours. What you said is partly true in that after 1 year and passing Step 3, US residents can apply for their license. For international graduates, it may take 2 or 3 years of residency before they can apply for licensing depending on the state. In reality, everyone will try to finish their residency program because a licensed physician without board certification (successfully completed residency) will have a very difficult time finding a job and malpractice insurance.

bambi said:
I thought you had to do 1 year at most maybe to be licensed and then apply for attending posts. I'm pretty sure that once you have your CCT in the UK you are pretty much good to go.
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confuse said:
I'm not sure how residency is done at UK but I think the program length is shorter compared to ours. What you said is partly true in that after 1 year and passing Step 3, US residents can apply for their license. For international graduates, it may take 2 or 3 years of residency before they can apply for licensing depending on the state. In reality, everyone will try to finish their residency program because a licensed physician without board certification (successfully completed residency) will have a very difficult time finding a job and malpractice insurance.
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Our time from graduation to consultant (attending) is a lot longer than in the US in most specialties though they have just changed things to make it a bit quicker.

I think I read somewhere actually that to get a full license you need more than a year in the US as an IMG but it varies by state but I think that's if you go over just after graduation rather than as a consultant.
 
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