So it seems like you're a Vietnamese medical student who is looking at coming to do rotations in an American medical school or do you mean you want to do residency in America?
From my understanding, in order to actually do a clerkship with a medical school you have to be enrolled in that medical school. You may observe as a visiting medical student but you won't have a true clerkship experience. This will also likely depend on the school if they even allow this. And it's highly unlikely that they would allow a foreign medical student to transfer into their program, especially if you've graduated already. What you can do is take up a research position and learn about the system that way.
If you're talking about residency. You're going to need both STEP1 and 2 in order to be competitive as a foreign medical graduate. Your chances applying as a foreign medical graduate into a US residency is pretty low. Nothing you can do will make this better. You're going to be relegated into IM, FM, psych or prelim gen surg programs.
Why do you even want to come to the US? Why not just stay in Vietnam?
Thanks for your honest advice.
Yeah, all I want is a visiting student program, even observing medical procedure is extremely good for me.
The educational system of all medical school in Vietnam is consist of 6 years general sciences and clinical rotations. After 6 years, we could choose to apply to a residency program for further education (all specialties are 3-year duration) or just become a GP doctor and MAYBE taking a specialty course in the future. Residency program is not mandatory in Vietnam. 6 years in medical school, and we'll become a doctor with full prescription rights.
I've tried not to be so negative, however, the academic environment of medical schools are not good. I remembered when I was in my 1st and 2nd year, my physiology and anatomy class were very boring, and laboratories were full of out of date facilities. I almost decided to quit medical school at time, until my uncle sent me a physiology book of Guyton and Hall as a gift. It was really a tipping point of my mind. I asked my self "Is this how everything really is?", then I bought "Gray's anatomy for student", it really blowed my mind up. I also took some online courses on Coursera. The most interesting course was "Medical Neuroscience" of Duke University, and through a forum discussion, I've found out USMLE exams. It has been several months since I started my USMLE road, and I really enjoyed it.
There is a ton of problems that I cannot handle in Vietnam. Low ability medical students who born with a silver spoon in their mouth, could take a slot in a big hospital easily. But the most important thing is the poor relationship between doctors and patients. I know I could do in different ways, but the scariest thing is no one surround me have noticed about it, even we are still a medical student, my friends mimic the mean way that most doctors treat their patients, they just worried about their clinical examination performance, they don't care about the emotions of patients. It makes me disgusted. I just said but they called me hypocritical.
So I want to come to a country other than Vietnam that is more suitable for me. It's not about the salary. It's not about "American dream". It's my curiosity about medicine. It's so cheesy but I have to find a proper environment to keep my passion on fire.
Thank for your attention.
I highly suggest coming to America to practice. Compared to US trained, you have very very minimal loans and possibly a superior education depending on your board scores. You will have a leg up compared to most other US trained colleagues. You would be well
Thank you. I'll do my best. I think that I could get a good score in Step 1 and Step 2 CK, but I need a good communicating skill to pass through Step 2 CS. That's why I need a visiting student program.
