Honestly, it's a little bit of both. I like to compare it to sports. If you're from San Francisco, you root for the Giants. You meet someone that's a fan of the Cubs. I mean, it's awesome that they are into baseball too, but when you meet another Giants fan, there's something else there, but at the end f the day, will you stop being friends with a Cubs fan or be cool with the Giants fan despite glaring flaws? No. Same thing with MD and DO. People like their teams, but it doesn't mean active hating. Plenty of DOs work with MDs and have practices together.
IMGs aren't a threat to DOs or MDs, particularly, as they still have to do an ACGME residency and usually lose out on those residencies to US grads. There is the potential for DOs and bottom of the barrel MDs to lose potential positions to IMGs in the match as the number of match positions gets closer to the number of US grads. For now though, IMGs complete the same residencies as US MDs, work in the same settings (generally, though they are more likely to work in underserved areas than US grads) as US grads. They're not our competition, they are our colleagues.
Carib grads can't practice without finishing a residency. Once they finish residency, they are also our peers. Carib grads that haven't completed a residency are functionally worthless, aside from their ability to work in prisons- they can't even work for the military, let alone for a private hospital where insurance companies and medicare won't reimburse for their services. PAs are a reasonable thing to fear competition-wise, but they still have to function under the license of a physician, so they aren't as bad as the real impending threat, which is NPs. NPs do not require supervision in many states, they are actively lobbing to be equal to physicians, and they are not, in any way, our colleagues. Coworkers, perhaps, but certainly not colleagues.
). But that is not the way our government often functions. It is about getting by on the bare minimum at the cheapest cost possible.
The trouble is, reimbursement. It's possible the Assistant Physician designation will spread beyond one state, but it is far more likely that Caribbean federal student loan funding will be cut (something that is already in the works, as exceptions were made in the original drafting of the law for the Big 4 Carib schools- without those exceptions, they will flounder and fail). NPs tho...I am well aware of what the laws are RIGHT NOW. I am not concerned about the present...more so about the future. I am right with you that NPs and PAs are a potential threat. I do believe that there may become an opportunity for non-residency trained physicians in our country...primarily coming from the Caribbean...in the future. The government may reason...if PAs coming out of PA school can practice...why not MDs/DOs? We know the answer and it's obvious (because med students are a LIABILITY when leaving med school
It's probably just paranoia...but with the insurance companies dictating pay on one end and an increasing presence of the government regulating on the other...it really could turn physicians into government servants if we aren't careful. That is one of the many reasons why Physicans from other countries flee to America...
I've gone on a bit as to my theory for this. Medical training cultivates followers, hoop jumpers, and people that are prone to fear change and enjoy stability. We've got generations of physicians carefully cultivated for their spinelessness and inability to stand up to authority, versus a generation of nurses that are out for blood and feel they've been wronged out of "their piece of the pie." We need to unite and get some leadership with cohones or we're done for.Yeah...I know what you are saying.
You can see more and more slipping away and there is absolutely no medical leadership to be found.
Blood thirsty nurses. Good stuff.
Yeah, though many Carib MD schools have averages around 20-22. So... 30 vs. 26 vs. 20? Yet patients would see a Caribbean MD as an MD. Regardless, I agree with @DoctorSynthesis. I did an event with nursing students at my school and they kept referring to me as the "MD" in the scenario (even though they explicitly knew I was from the DO school). Really, MD or DO, you're "the doctor" to 99% of people.
Touro-Harlem had an average MCAT of 30.8 last year.
Impressive, but I wonder why?
Because it's NYC, of course. They also select heavily based on MCAT- I was in their first round of interviews, as was my roommate, who also scored in the 30s.
Cornell being in the state, maybe? Along with City University, NYU and Columbia as UG institutions?
It was okay. I probably would have gone there if the cost of living wasn't so damn high. Much happier in Maine though- the city is way too busy for my taste nowadays. I really think it's just the NYC thing though- NYC has a population in the many, many millions, and this is aside from the number of people that have NYC dreams. That school is going to get a lot of high stat apps from all over, and from the city itself.
Yeah, I know what you mean about the CoL. I almost did a MPH at Columbia... but then I sat down and figured out what it would cost to do those two years.
The real trouble is that their CoL calculation doesn't really give you enough to live in Manhattan unless you're in a closet, so you'll have to take out private loans or get a job if you want to not have three hundred roommates, 295 of which are cockroaches.
Sure, but people are certainly free look like *****s. My favorites are premeds going on about DOs like they're half doctors...it's strange that people who've done little more in the healthcare field than stack towels feel like they have the acumen to denigrate an entire field of highly trained professionals.
Hmmm... Maybe it's doable. I just couldn't work in the budget myself. I guess the biggest thing for me was keeping my car so I could visit home, I just couldn't make it work financially.
Living in such a huge city must really require a rationing of the scarce space. Kind of an odd concept for someone like myself who lives in a town of 20,000.
Exactly. So I kind of had to choose between keeping my car (and by extension, my close relationships with my friends and girlfriend) or living in NYC. I picked the former. Totally happy in Maine though- I've got a freakin' house with a garage 500 feet from the beach for 800 a month, it's awesome.
But how cold is it in late fall and early winter?
Depending on where you live, parking can cost literally hundreds of dollars a month, and insurance will run you hundreds more if you've got collision and a relatively new car (like mine). But you're not going to use your car most of the time, since the subway just makes way more since, so you've got to pay to get a metro pass, which is even more cash...
Eh, we've already hit about 45 degrees and had our first snow. It's not much worse than the rest of New England- you lose perhaps 10-15 days of good weather on either side of the year. The real problem is the sheer amount of snow we get- 72" a year is a bitch. Luckily all of the lectures are recorded, so I can just hole up with some hot chocolate and enjoy them from home until the roads get plowed when that time comes.
At the start of the year, it's actually really nice. As it gets colder, it's still a wonderful place to just relax and do homework. Once it gets seriously cold, it might as well not be there unless you've got a wetsuit. But if you do have a wetsuit, it's still awesome
lol I like how your brain works. I've been looking into some states I may eventually want to relocate to and Vermont is looking really nice; progressive politics (my biggest problem with GA), huge numbers of small farms, protection of small businesses, beautiful environment with green energy efforts all over the place, medium sized towns with great opportunities for professionals, small population.....just that the cold will take some getting used to. But, I'm very frustrated with the South.
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are very similar in attitude to the South, but without a lot of the political negatives. They also lack a lot of the downsides of the Northeast- the land is cheaper, the population density is lower, and the taxes aren't as bad as many of the larger NE metros.
Quiet friendly country folks without the bigotry and backward thinking? Sounds great.
