australian medical school and US residency

[jaketheory]

Hi all,

I'm interested in going to Aus for med school. I'd be interested in staying there afterwards, though that may change after 4 years of med school. i know in the past it has been hard to stay for internship/specialty training and then within the last 5 or so years it has become much easier. However, there's change currently sweeping Aus with the opening of near 10 new med schools by the 2008 intake (including some of the recently opened schools) as well as increasing student places at the existing schools. i think this may make it very hard to stay if i start school in 2008 as it is uncertain if there will be funding/staffing for clinical placements for even the locals. so obviously i will have to plan on returning to the US should I not be able to stay.

so my questions entail:
i've contacted a US teaching hospital at which I'd be interested in doing residency. Its not high profile and i'm not interested in a highly competitive specialty (internal medicine). however, they have told me that to be eligible I must have ECFMG certification, must pass USMLE steps 1 and 2 on first try and i must have clinical experience in the US within the past year. Is this even possible if I go to Aus? I know the school year ends around december and residency applications often go in before this. i dont see how i could get ECFMG certified before graduating. And then, I would have to wait for the following year to apply for residency. but then it would have been over a year since my US clerkships (if completed at end of 4th year) and thus over a year since I'd had clinical experience in the US. Is it even possible? Any help appreciated.
-jake

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[Winged Scapula]

so my questions entail:
i've contacted a US teaching hospital at which I'd be interested in doing residency. Its not high profile and i'm not interested in a highly competitive specialty (internal medicine). however, they have told me that to be eligible I must have ECFMG certification, must pass USMLE steps 1 and 2 on first try and i must have clinical experience in the US within the past year. Is this even possible if I go to Aus? I know the school year ends around december and residency applications often go in before this. i dont see how i could get ECFMG certified before graduating. And then, I would have to wait for the following year to apply for residency. but then it would have been over a year since my US clerkships (if completed at end of 4th year) and thus over a year since I'd had clinical experience in the US. Is it even possible? Any help appreciated.
-jake

Of course its possible. Many of us have done it.

It is impossible to have your ECFMG CERTIFICATE before graduation as one of the requirements is to send your diploma in. Therefore, you need to clarify with this program you are interested in whether they want you to be ECFMG certified before applying (which is unusual, but not unheard of) or to simply have your certificate by the time you start residency (which is the usual way and is required).

The NRMP requires that you have completed all the STEPS toward ECFMG certification by the date your Rank Order List is due (usually mid-February); they do NOT require you to have the certificate in hand to stay in the match.

Individual programs can make up their own rules outside of what the NRMP wants. SOme programs do require the certificate in hand to interview you; probably they've been burned in the past by matching someone who was then unable to get their certificate. However, as I said, this is pretty unusual.

Graduating in December simply gives you extra time to get everything done. There are some who waited out a year (ie, rather than starting residency the following July) but this was often for personal reasons or they simply hadn't gotten their act together and gotten all their tests and paperwork done.

At any rate, you need to clarify with this particular program what they really mean (and don't talk with an administrative person, but rather the actual program director) by having your certificate and US experience in the year prior. The latter is unusual as well since many of my colleagues did their US electives at the BEGINNING of 4th year and still got residencies. I think its best to do them at the end of 4th year so you are in the US for interview time, rather than having to fly back and forth from Oz.

Hope this helps.

 

[jaketheory]

cheers kimberly

 

[jaketheory]

kimberly,
i know it is possible for people to do residency in the US. my question pertained to this specific hospital i am interested in.

they state the ERAS deadline is in December. Now if "NRMP requires that you have completed all the STEPS toward ECFMG certification by the date your Rank Order List is due", i'm guessing i'd have to have that in by the december deadline. correct? and that to do so, i'd have to have completed the steps for ecfmg certification prior to the submission date in dec. correct? and if graduation is in december, i couldnt possibly complete the certification steps by the december deadline.

so my original question was, is it impossible for me to get a residency with THIS program? i can ask them about ECFMG being required by application date or the start of the program, but from what i stated above, it doesnt seem to matter. either way, it doesnt look like i could meet all the requirements if their deadline is in dec. mind you, i could not simply wait for the following year, because by then i would not meet the requirement of having clinical experience in the US in the past year. or could i? is there some way i could continue limited supervised clinical experience having graduated but not in a residency program yet? they specifically state that research and observerships do not count as clinical experience for this requirement. all advice welcomed. cheers.
-jake